That day’s cloud, Eun Yeoung LEE shaped in clay and drew in charcoal. Yet clouds, by nature, are not bound to where the gaze comes to rest. Like particles of charcoal that seem as though they might scatter at the slightest breath, the clouds stretching across the gallery take on the form of an absence that grows more distant the more one tries to hold it. Appearing as they move and disappearing as they settle, that day’s clouds drift like traces of that day’s memory. Forms that seem merely still set time that had come to a halt flowing again, each at its own pace. And as time begins to move, a narrative begins to emerge. Walking among them, we sense that something has already passed, and that something continues to pass.
Through fire as a medium, LEE looks towards the time that lies between what has disappeared and what remains. Passing through fire, some things scatter and dissolve, some harden, and others take on another form. One holds a body made more enduring by passing through fire; the other, a heart that can easily scatter at the slightest touch. The exhibition brings together things left behind in these different states. Yet they offer no conclusive answers. Their titles seem to point towards that day’s clouds, but perhaps this directness of reference is intended to reveal an awareness that they are not the clouds themselves. Just as an object acquires greater depth when it is not confined by being directly named, that day’s clouds borrow the form of clouds to call forth, each in its own way, the hidden stories beyond them and those who have departed. Forms not fixed by explicit words may, depending on the viewer, become fragments of a broken heart, or seep into the shape of the name of someone who has long remained unspoken.
In this sense, Clouds Never Return the Same is a narrative of loss and reunion. Clouds never return the same. Yet neither do they disappear entirely. They return having changed their form, their place, and sometimes even their name. LEE tries to gather these returning clouds.
