OUR WORK
Lee Ufan, Zen and the School of Things
Panel Discussion
Presenter
Panellists
Melanie Eastburn, Senior Curator Asian Art, AGNSW
Dr Julian Droogan, Associate Professor, Macquarie University
Kathryn Hunyor (moderator)
Date
Saturday 19 October 2024
Links
To celebrate the opening of the exhibition ‘Quiet Resonance’ by Lee
Ufan, one of the most celebrated and significant artists of the past 6
decades, AGNSW Curator Melanie Eastburn, religion specialist Dr
Julian Droogan, and Japanese-speaking independent curator
Kathryn Hunyor joined in a conversation about his work.
The expansive and often conceptual talk ranged from Lee Ufan’s
background growing up in Korea and moving to Japan, and his role
as one of the founders of the Mono-ha (‘school of things’) movement.
From Zen and ‘breathing’, to ‘nature vs manmade’, and ‘ma / space’,
the panelists grappled with both the Western / European and Eastern
/ East Asian philosophical ideas relevant to Lee Ufan’s work, and
how they merge to create his world view and artistic perspective.
The conversation was a chance to contemplate and question our
ideas of human engagement with the material world; and to consider
how art objects help us attune to ourselves, to each other and the
world around us.