Courtesy of Duane Reed Gallery
Jiyong Lee’s art is heavy—in weight as well as intensity. The Southern Illinois University Carbondale professor’s glass sculptures are dense, massive objets d’art that require taking a deep breath before you try to lift them. You can witness their stunning, hypnotic effect at a solo show by Lee this month at Duane Reed Gallery (February 19 to March 27, duanereedgallery.com).
Your work is gorgeous. How do you make it?
I use an optical glass block, and I cut out shapes. I grind and polish the surfaces and use a very high-quality epoxy-resin adhesive, and color and laminate the glass parts, then put them together and regrind the surface.
They have a way of looking fully formed, like nature just plopped them out; it’s hard to imagine all of the work that went into them.
For some of the pieces, I have to anneal them, which means cooling very slowly, for two to three weeks. I don’t make many pieces—only about 12 to 16 a year. Each piece takes about a month.
And they’re heavy.
They are from 25 to 40 pounds. It’s a solid piece of glass.
What inspires you?
The direct inspiration came from my son’s birth. When we found out my wife was pregnant, I wanted to revisit how life starts—the cell-division process. If you remember your biology textbook, there are pictures of cells and embryos. They’re not perfectly clear, but they do have some translucency. That’s how I see the future, too. From the beginning of life, there’s some clarity—we know what’s going to happen—but simultaneously, there’s the cloudiness of the future.
