“Making Infinity” at the Guggenheim Museum 9/24/2011

Dialogue (2009/11) by Lee Ufan (Korean, b.1936)

               Steel and Stones

               Courtesy Kukje Gallery, Seoul

The Dialogue, executed by Lee Ufan, is an art installation of a sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum. Two huge steel plates lean against each other and make a very sharp isosceles triangle standing between two big rocks. Lee Ufan expresses that “a stone is presented in its natural state and brought infinitely close to the human” and “a steel plate is presented in its artificial state and brought infinitely close to the nature.” Therefore, the rocks (nature) and the steel plates (artificial) are uniting, which creates the artist’s idea of infinity. The rocks and the steel plates interact with the opened space and its negative space creating an emptiness of non- existence in contrast to existence of things. In terms of the shapes, I like the pointy part of the stones angled toward the steel plates and the space between them, which is well placed and balanced.