I was silently proud to enter the impressive Lisson Gallery. Its stark white walls and matte smooth cement floors seemed to possess a highly finished quality that whispered of success. I was proud because I was seeing a Canadian who has reached that level of success on the international stage.
The laser A4 press release accompanying Lee’s work asserts “Tim Lee presents a series of new works that operate within the loose confines of an artistic-social laboratory/studio experiment in order to offer a complex inquiry into the connection between highly charged socio-political movements and their transformative impact on the artistic avant-garde.” I quickly translate this into, “Tim Lee makes work about Public Enemy.” Is such an unpacking unfair? Surely this is what the author meant? The irony is that somewhere in the journey this phrase took from the specific to the general, we’ve included the art galleries’ brand of sophistication.