ChoNamLee HongJin Garden tree sculpture project - Tree in Tree

Lee Myung-Ok Director of Savina Museum of Contemporary Art

Savina Museum of Contemporary Art (Savina Museum) presents Tree in Tree, a garden tree sculpture project by ChoNamLee HongJin. The artist introduces himself in two ways. As ‘Lee HongJin’, the artist who sculpts trees out of trees in his Bukhansan (Bukhan Mountain)[1] studio. Also as, ‘ChoNamLee,’ the artist who transforms dead trees into living trees. He does this as a reflection of the purpose, themes, and methods involved in his creative practice. For years, Lee has worked on the garden plant sculpture project Tree in Tree. The project aims to revive the ‘lost landscapes of nature’ through art. Using parts of trees that were cut down and discarded during redevelopment or the leftovers produced during the process of pruning and trimming trees (for aesthetic purposes), Lee turns them into his ‘garden trees (정원수).’ Using woodturning techniques, he carves the trees/wood into the shapes of trees that are planted in pots, and on the sculpture, he uses pigments that are created from natural origins such as grass, flower petals, moss, charcoal, mud, etc. The Korean word ‘정원수’ can refer to a ‘garden tree’ (庭園樹) or ‘gardener’ (庭園手).[2] Thus, turning a discarded tree into a ‘garden tree’ allows dead trees to live again as a companion plant under the care and nurturing of people.

The idea is also reflected in the artist’s words; “What is core to my practice is working with trees that were cut and discarded in many different places, and turning them into trees that can grow again in the caring hands of people.”

Garden Tree sculpture to heal body, mind, and spirit

It is really in ourselves, in our emotions and in our memories, that we can each find our healing space. For the most powerful of healing places is in the brain and in the mind.[3]

- Esther M. Sternberg M.D.

Lee commenced this project to establish his self-identity as an artist, whilst overcoming his own trauma of losing his parents in his childhood and the fear of abandonment that followed. Deriving from the name of his hometown, Chonam village, that is in Namgye-ri, Iseo-myeon, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, his pseudonym ‘ChoNamLee’ is closely related to the events in his childhood. There were quite a few children in Chonam village who were abandoned by their parents, including Lee himself being brought up by his grandmother.

It is a great tragedy for a child to be abandoned by their parents, who should have been nurturing and caring. Having that anger and loss from his childhood abandonment, Lee, who grew up to be an artist, struggles to heal the wounded child within. Unlike a given name, one can choose one’s own pseudonym. To adopt a pseudonym of one’s own choice shows the will to live up to that name, a name that has one’s view on life, motto and beliefs embedded. According to Yi Gyu-Bo (이규보;李奎報, 1168-1241), a bureaucrat and scholar in the late Goryeo period, “(people) choose their pseudonym according to the level one has already achieved, or according to the goal and will that one wants to pursue (...) it is either an accomplished goal or a goal that one wishes to accomplish that one chooses their pseudonym to reflect.” ‘ChoNamLee’, a pseudonym that Lee gave himself, is an expression of the determination to fulfill his basic duties and responsibilities, whilst respecting the value of life. In his practice, he recognizes the useless discarded trees as living beings that are abandoned, and the act of turning them into garden tree sculptures is equivalent to a total healing of the body, mind, and spirit. His campaign of inviting the public to take care of his ‘garden tree’ echoes the ethical practice and responsibility to protect and care for life.

Presenting the essence of beauty through geometrical figures

[The universe] cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word.[4]

- Galilei Galileo

The main feature of the garden tree sculptures lies in its composition of geometrical shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, etc., that are sculpted using the woodturning techniques. Geometric shapes are recognized as a tool for aesthetic expression that touches on the essence of the subjects. For example, a circle represents totality, one, unity, infinity, peace, harmony; a triangle represents stability, balance, dynamic, strength and power, holy trinity; a square refers to sturdiness, heaviness, regularity, order, tranquility. Geometrical shapes are also an aesthetical tool that delivers the most ideal and beautiful form. Using simple (geometrical) figures, the artist highlights the essence of nature and its everlasting beauty, and he draws up differing connotations and moods by repositioning the figures. Lee chose to work with woodturning techniques, as it could precisely and uniformly produce sculptures that were identical in shape and size. Wood turning on a lathe resembles throwing pots on a pottery wheel. Just as a lump of mud is shaped on the potter’s wheel whilst it spins, wood is carved with a chisel whilst it spins on a wood lathe. In his artist note, Lee explains the reason he combined sculpture with craft; “The biggest advantage of the woodturning technique is in its ability to deliver symmetry. (It can sit a deformed tree upright.) As it enables precise processing, I can produce a form that is identical from every angle. In a way, the (geometric) figures in the work are a metaphor for the ‘unchanging heart.’ By putting the basic geometrical shapes together, I aim to deliver the most ideal garden tree sculptures.”

There is another reason the artist chose to use woodturning techniques. Using a professional wood lathe allows quick production. In other words, the machine’s high-speed processing boosts productivity. Rather than reaching out to a small number of collectors, Lee wanted to allow the public to purchase the garden tree sculptures at a reasonable price. Also, the tools in his practice to call for social participation and a sense of solidarity.

Delivering a message of rebuilding the ecosystem by working toward zero waste

The life of every man is a way to himself, an attempt at a way, the suggestion of a path. No man has ever been utterly himself, yet every man strives to be so, the dull, the intelligent, each one as best he can.

- excerpt from the novel Demian by Herman Hesse

This project delivers the idea of the circle of life in nature that death equals life; death is not a severance from life, but a process in which life is regenerated into another kind of life. Having suffered from the trauma from lack of love, alienation and abandonment, the painful experiences led Lee to believe that the work of protecting and restoring the damaged natural ecosystem is intrinsically connected with the work of restoring the human world. His belief on the world as an artist is represented in his own Zero Waste practice. Lee works to make an environment where humans and nature coexist, by eliminating the use of production methods that pollute the environment or eliminating the trash that is produced in exhibiting his works. All trees that are used in producing garden tree sculptures are gathered in nature, and vice versa, can be returned to nature. Works composed entirely of natural materials are works of art that returns to nature. Once their use is exhausted, they can disintegrate into the soil without destroying the environment. This project shows how an ecological world view was an important starting point in Lee’s practice. Also, it shows that the best way to restore a humanity in harmony with the natural ecosystem is in our daily practice.

*The title ‘Once the first root is sprouted, the plant will not shift’ has been adopted from Lab Girl, written by Hope Jahren.

[1] [translator’s note] Bukhansan or Bukhan Mountain is a mountain located in Seoul, South Korea.

[2] [translator’s note] Although the word 정원수 (pronounced jeong-won-su) can either refer to a ‘garden tree’ or a ‘gardener (someone who looks after the plants in the garden)’ in Korean, to avoid confusion, what is referred to as ‘정원수’ in this text will be translated as ‘garden tree’ unless it definitely indicates ‘gardener.’

[3] Sternberg, E. M. (2009). Healing Spaces: The science of place and well-being, Harvard University Press, p.296.

[4] An excerpt from The Assayer (1623) by Galilei Galileo