『REMOVED, POSSIBILITIES 사라지고, 불가능성』 Series, 2020
- The four books in this series are re-imagined spaces created by Lee's deforming his own books currently distributed in the bookstores.
Jinwoo Hwon Lee 이훤 published his second poetry book, 『Let Us Not Be Too Desperate 우리 너무 절박해지지 말아요』 (시인동네), in 2019.
In the book, the poet wrote about his experience of frequent displacement and sporadic sense of belong through his poems. For Lee, this has become the object that signifies the very time and space he desperately coped with the disjunction.
Intending to alter the experiences, Lee created four respective books, with the same cover, where one of them is removed of all English words; the other removed of all Korean words; another where carved words from both are stored and accessible; and the fourth the book is glued on all ends and does not open.
Through the reimagined spaces by removing words, the artist is able to share his experience of absence of mother language and that of the foreign.
In the version of the book where all words cut out are stored, both Lee and viewers can access all fragments though not possible in reality. However, the viewers, in exhibition settings, will be asked to carry a word with them so that the lost languages in the migrating process keep traveling with the viewers.
Lastly, the disjointed reality is also experienced in form of complete inaccess through the closed book. The type of impossibility perceived from time to time for those away from their mother land.
Limited and numbered edition of each book is currently available for sale. All are unique editions created by Jinwoo Hwon Lee.
To purchase a copy, please contact Lee for more information.
PoetHwon@gmail.com