Maelee Lee-Walking the Truth, Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos

Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos
Thalia Vrachopoulos  is Ph.D. International Art Critic, Curator,
and  Professor in Jonh Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York.

Maelee Lee’s high heel pumps speak volumes, but her installations’ circumambulation pattern is notable as well. This meditative journey in the round that inspired Lee, is an integral part of Hinduism and Buddhism. This pariyahindana is usually circular as you are meant to walk around a dagoba or stupa and twirl the prayer wheels while doing so. This idea of circumambulating a holy center is also prevalent in Christianity and Judaism, while in the Islamic tradition one circumnavigates around the Q’abba. However, because Lee is from Korea it is most likely Son Buddhism that informs this body of work. This perambulation is called kinhin and in Korean Haengseon which is a walking technique focused on the present and practiced in between long sitting meditations. The practitioner holds a shashu mudra with one fist in his other hand, and breathes deeply after which he takes a step walking in as clockwise pattern around the room. This is a type of walking in synchrony to the Son teachings or walking the truth of the sutras and is meant to make one alert of mind and calm of body.

The pattern of Lee’s installation can also be related to the Neolithic signs for the mother goddess, the cycle of birth and seen as a symbolic womb. These spirals are primal signs of the unrestricted forces of nature; the universe, and lunar, seasonal, and solar patterns. This is also a symbol of progression and change, of movement and development rather than stationary. Lee’s chosen spiral pattern carries a positive significance and has existed in the arts of many cultures. In Celtic designs, in rock carvings, in Nazca earth sculptures, Arabic architecture, African art, and aboriginal paintings. In fact, it is an archetypical sign that is non-sectarian seen by most to representing the cycle of/or entryway to life.

Lee uses the spiral as a sign for the journey of life and as a way of alluding to the endless discovery undertaken as walking meditation. But, she uses high heel pumps made of paper as a way of overturning their utilitarian value but also to make a statement about life’s journey. The heels are signs of feminine beauty and sexuality, but combined with the journey and because of their height, they become objects of penance. Doing penance is commonly undertaken in religious practice where it absolves sins bringing about a reconciliation of faith. Because she utilizes high heels in her works since 2005, the element becomes a fetishist symbol that can be interpreted as the reason for doing penance as seen in the latest works of 2015. Lee has installed the high heel shoes in bamboo forests, in modern buildings, in the countryside, or forming walking patterns on mountains. By so doing, she is making a statement about a spiritual journey that is likened to the Son walking meditations.

Lee makes her high heel shoes from recycled paper which is not a permanent material thus she overturns the reading of a shoe’s ability to hold up the person’s weight. Furthermore, she makes works that are monumental like the Red Heel, a startling format for a woman. In this case, it could be said that she’s claiming autonomy which is difficult in Confucianist Korea, at the same time as she is asserting her femininity. Although the heels are seen as feminine signs, they are not feminist per se for even Gloria Steinem threw off the ‘yoke of feminine trappings’ when she got rid of her bra. Dichotomies such as these, in Lee’s art formulate her works’ multi-leveled complex fabric and subsequently its readings that add viewer interest.