A fascinating book published in 2014 by the Fondazione Mudima in Milan documents Lee Ufan’s wanderings through the environs of Lombardy in search of stones—boulders, in fact—to be used as components in his “Relatum” series, along with plates of steel. The photographs reveal the artistic expression behind the confrontation with these large elements. From Lee’s perspective, stones are not inanimate, but fully alive and resonant. They are part of nature, just like grass, trees, and mountain streams. Stones represent time, and by representing time, they become the basis of an extended history that exceeds the millennia of human beings on earth. Lee is a remarkable theorist not only of his own practice, but also of two major movements in which he played a central role, namely, the Mono-ha (School of Things) group from the late 1960s in Japan and the Dansaekhwa (Monochrome) group from the late 1970s in Korea. …see the entire article in the print version of January/February’s Sculpture magazine.
