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Seth Lower: "Looking for Lee Ming" at The Lab in San Francisco
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Seth Lower, I'm not Lee Ming (It's Ok), 2009 Photo: Ho Ming-Kuie
It’s not often that one goes off in search of someone who sent them a random email, especially when that person happens to be on an entirely different continent, yet this is exactly what artist Seth Lower did. Looking for Lee Ming, Lower’s new show that recently opened in The Lab’s small front exhibition space in San Francisco, is the result of his investigation into the identity and whereabouts of a complete stranger. According to the framed statement at the beginning of the show (these statements are often critical in orienting the viewer to Lower’s work) in the summer of 2008 the artist received an email message from someone in Taipei named Lee Ming. “She (or he) told me that she knew who I was and that she had met me in a dream before I was born.” In the statement Lower goes on to describe the dream – he saves Lee Ming’s life and dies in the process – and claims that Lee Ming found him by seeing one of his images on the internet and immediately recognizing it. In the spring of 2009 Lower obtained an artist residency in Taipei in order to “search” for this mysterious person.
The show presented at The Lab is made up of two videos, two framed drawings/paintings, a sculpture of a hand resting on top of some oriental decorated papers, a large photograph, and the statement. With the help of an assistant, Lower tracked down several Lee Mings in Taiwan and interviewed some of them on camera. After visiting fortune tellers, throwing divining blocks at Taoist temples, and many other dead ends the artist realized that the search was futile and that possibly more answers were to be found by restaging Lee Ming’s dream. One of Lowers’ videos switches back and forth from clips of the restaging of the dream with strangers on a lush Taiwanese mountainside to hilarious interviews with some of the Lee Mings (the language barrier is always a problem). When I asked the artist what the significance of the hand sculpture was, he replied that really it was a paperweight for the fortunes, but that it also related to the dream. Also, according to Lower, the two framed post-it notes are presumed to be Lee Ming’s art while the other framed painting is his own work. All of these elements combine to lend clues that point toward a search for answers, but the direction is unbelievably vague. Obviously, a project such as this is more about the search than actually finding any answers, but I get the sense that this endeavor might have become too esoteric for even Lower’s sensitive practice.
The idea of trust comes into play with Lowers work. Is the whole thing a fabrication, and does this even matter? Even the initial email seems questionable. Other artists have worked in the mode of manufactured truths with success. The Saatchi Gallery’s showing of Jamie Shovlin’s work, Naomi V. Jelish, presents the journals and artwork of a precocious young art student who disappears in 1991 with her mother and sisters. The story and paraphernalia from the girl’s life is intriguing. However, Shovlin’s story is an elaborate concoction that serves as a vehicle for his work (the girl’s name is an anagram of Shovlin’s). In a similar way, Lower’s Lee Ming, whether real or not, is an excuse to explore in a certain direction. Even if no answers are found, the questioning and seeing itself are enough to validate this endeavor. Presumably, this is also what validates the exhibition.
Looking for Lee Ming runs through Saturday November 21rst, 2009.
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