Cloud and Dark Slow Lightning are works in which Yongjae Lee
isolates and explores the clouds and lightning that appear in
earlier works, which allude to the traditional Korean painting
genre Unryongdo. In such paintings, dragons are depicted as
revealing themselves amidst clouds. In these two works, the
artist’s core methodologies of ‘appropriation’ and ‘tracing’
go beyond referencing the works of others to expand into a
process of revisiting and transforming his own.

Dark Slow Lightning originates in Lee’s reexamination of
the representation of lightning in previous works. Noting the
significant difference between the lightning in traditional ink
wash paintings and the contemporary image of lightning we
are accustomed to, Lee links this disparity to the advent of
photographic technology. Reflecting upon ‘ink wash painting
after photography,’ the artist sought a way to capture lightning
using the brushstrokes of traditional ink painting, made
with black strokes instead of brightness to create a singular
representation of lightning on canvas.