Duck and Void

One critic says Lee Kang So "approaches the realm of the origin of painting, where truths and illusions are born. His paintings not only subvert the cliches of landscape genre, but also are simply paintings, clear and refreshing. With this series of new paintings, Lee draws out the very condition of painting, that is, contemplation on perception and consciousness, imagination and material." Lee Kang So's painting does remind us of the first paintings, like the Lascaux. They are representations of men and bison. They were illusions. And they meant something. And these are exactly what Lee's paintings don't have. They might look like ducks, but not necessarily. These brush marks can be ducks or geese or other things. They are not exactly illusions of any specific things. They don't symbolize or mean anything. There is no metaphor. They are there just as brushmarks that don't intend to be anything. This may be the very reason why they are there. Not to mean anything. To be nothing.