Like Glue?

Student Art Exhibit

Sandra Elien

Throughout the week of February 21st an exhibit by Garam Lee, an MFA student in the Art Department, entitled “Alien’s Footprint (trace)?” was displayed in the Student Art League Gallery.

Garam Lee, whose art exhibit revolved around his unfamiliarity with the American language, is a Korean artist who will be earning his MFA in the spring of 2012. In reference to his limited command of English, Lee decided on a medium such as the human mouth and glue to utter concepts he could not express.  “[I] used [my] mouth to blow hot glue [into creating his works] because the mouth is precious and important,” said Lee. His various works of art, which included a life-sized sailboat, a pair of sneakers covered with hot glue and an oversize sweatshirt, among others, took him at least a week to three weeks to accomplish.

In sharing his experience in coming to the United States, Lee’s works appealed to a number of students. Caleb Kim, a digital photography and film photography major, found the art exhibit “interesting…I remember as a child I used to use glue guns to build houses.”

The opening night reception, on Wednesday, February 23rd in the Student Art league Gallery, began at 5 p.m. 12 people gathered to view the art works of Garam Lee. Many students took the time to ask Lee questions about what motivated him to take on such project.  “Since, I came to America, I feel like I’m alien [in] here,” said Lee. “Communication is so hard to me because I have language problem and I am from another culture.” Lee also said that his art exhibit represented his feeling into his artwork.  Jordain Lee, another MFA student in the Art Department, who helped Lee in creating the life-size sailboat said, “because he [Lee] studied abroad in Korea he wanted to find something to say with his mouth.” Lee’s art exhibit not only portrayed his emotions as a foreign student studying in the United States but his artwork also gave an insight on the limitless options a person has to communicate.