artpark

Lee Chol Gyou Text

ChoulGyu Lee

In his modern work, an outstanding attribute is noticed. It's a combination of gold and Han Ji
(traditional Korean paper). It's natural that a Korean painter would use Hanji. However, it is also
rare that the painter uses the gold itself in his works, not the gold color with gold dust. Through
this method, artist Lee Cheol-gyu has been actively using two uncommon techniques to his
work: Gae Keum (repainting of gold) and Keum Bak (gilding), which he happened to learn while
on a temple tour. Gold, representing the eternal and precious value, has functioned as a means
to expel the devil and ghost from old times. It has a meaning of worship too. In addition, gold
represents the mammonism as a symbol of wealth and greed. In his works, Lee Cheol-gyu uses
gold to represent both meanings discussed in this paragraph, namely, representing eternal value
and a symbol of wealth and greed. So the intention of shortening the spatio-temporal distance
through a medium is to exchange information between speaker and listener and to establish the
possibility of communication. In the case of Lee Cheol-gyu, communication happens through the
medium of 'gold'.