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.
Personally, I always get hung up on the word “inquiry.” I have never seen a work of art that asks questions. Explain to me how a work of art can be anything but an affirmation, anything other than a statement. At worst, it’s a narcissistic injunction: “look at me.” Even if the work makes the viewer ask questions, even if we loosely define inquiry as a form of experimentation within the art making practice, “a complex inquiry” always lies on either side of the art. It is either after the fact as in the former, or before as in the latter. Art isn’t about research…it’s about finding. Finding is the end of inquiry not it’s entirety, so how can art be inquiry?
Aside from my personal reflections on the press release, Lee presents us with a broad sample of style. The show not only consists of a diverse selection of media from video and photography to sculpture and painting, but also many artistic eras from Nauman’s video work of the 1960s, to Public Enemy’s music of the 1980s and the contemporary showcase of the early 2000s. With such a broad scope, Lee comes across as a Renaissance Man. Moreover, the masterful mix of media is kept cohesive by orbiting the rich idea of “conceptual art [meets] radical black empowerment movement.”
Strolling through the gallery, I wonder how it would read if Tim was Caucasian. The main ground floor pieces possessed a gratifying solid size; it was a comforting formidableness that complimented their conceptual nature. It also occurred to me that this work is successful – it is well received – and in comparison to my focus, my work might appear overly sentimental.
Tags: gallery, London