Paul Lee's Artist Statement

The central idea in my work deals with problematical situations caused by the process of translation. The process of translation bridges the gap between two separate entities: different languages, cultures, values, virtues, histories. The differences between these two entitles only show up because of the inadequacies inherent in the process of translation. As an artist, I translate my personal feelings and my knowledge of my surroundings into a visual language for others to decode. This translation into my personal experience in turn becomes my work. This cycle of translation is broken when internal conflicts arise between the two different bodies joined by the process of translation. These conflicts are particularly powerful because they are so deeply rooted. My images exist among these conflicts, the space between seeing and knowing. I try to use my work to examine the decoding (translation) and coding process of images.

Work in progress

Airplane diptychs
The images are captured from videos of airplanes using a digital video board. I use Adobe Photoshop to process the images. The digital processing of these images is physically similar to the process of painting. Colors and compositions in the pieces are created rather than captured. The final images are transferred onto negative print film using an Agfa film recorder. I print the negatives onto two pieces of 30" x 40" conventional type C color paper (color coupler printing paper). The final size of the image is 40" x 60". The diptych format de-emphasizes the figure (the airplanes) and expands the field of vision for the viewer. The airplane series is very similar to the earlier images of horses from 1995-97. Like the running horses, these airplane images convey the senses of movement and suspension. The figure and ground relationship is also deliberately distorted by the blurring and the splitting of the images into two panels. The airplanes are created out of context. They can be seen as cultural icons of the 20th century like the horse are icons of the 19th century American West.