Art Sync: Heaven's Eye - A conversation with Ed Bing Lee - Viewing Room

White Grey Trim, 5" x 5" x 5", Synthetic Ribbon, Cotton, Waxed Linen

Work In Progress in Lee's Studio

Elizabeth Johnson: In an interview with Glenn Holsten when you were a Pew Fellow in 2007, you said that early in your career you made "knottings" that depicted Georges Seurat paintings. In an interview on artmobia.com, you named Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Bathers at Asinières as sources. Your sculptures such as Burger 4, Popcorn I, Mocha Ice Cream Cone, Trophy Cake and Edo celebrate birthday parties, baseball games, movies, tea ceremonies––the pleasures of life. Was the pleasurable, restful subject of Seurat's work as important as relating knots directly to pointillism? Do you feel like you pick aesthetically and emotionally pleasing subjects in general?

Ed Bing Lee: I draw heavily on art history for many of the subjects of my work. In my compositions collectively titled Picnics, I juxtaposed Seurat with contemporary food images to renew art history by linking it with the present in a humorous or even unsettling way...

Hot Dog, 2" x 3" x 7" , Waxed Linen, Cotton, Linen

EJ: Your work has become more sculptural. In the Holsten interview, you say that fiber work allows you to contrast "limp with structure," that "process is more important," and that you have become more interested in how "material dictates form." Pop artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Wayne Thiebaud call attention to surface to highlight pleasure and the superficiality of consumerism. Do you think of your laborious craft as slowing down surface enjoyment, and making pleasurable subjects lasting, sturdy, and scaled to the hand?

EBL: The decision to start working in the round was facilitated by the addition of "waxed linen" to my other working mediums, which included linen and cotton string and other threads, mainly DMZ embroidery thread. I use waxed linen since it maintains its structural integrity and strength when combined with more flexible, descriptive, or decorative materials.

Contemporary artists such as Oldenburg, Thiebaud, Mark Adams, and Andy Warhol were influential in opening new expression about everyday subjects. I have arrived at the conclusion that art-making is a combination of process, materials, and technique that captures ideas and ideals.

First Love, 19" x 19", Cotton, Embroidery Floss Over Linen

Bramble, 5" x 5" x 5", Raffia

EJ: There is aesthetic pleasure in seeing into the spaces between the knots, or to put it another way, to see texture added to a perceived image. When you work more abstractly, as with Stemmed Cup you literally "loosen" a hold on image as you let the materials dictate form. When you revisit these abstracted teacups, do you think of how they might be abstracted further? Or lead to new pieces that combine abstraction with material possibilities?

EBL: The three chawan images Stemmed Cup, Cloud Dragon, and Bramble were part of a collection of twenty examples of knotted basketry. These pieces represent my first use of ribbon as knotting material and explore basketry from both inside and out. Chawans used in tea ceremonies in Japan and China are often highly prized, antique treasures: the most desirable bowls are the Tenmoku, or Heaven’s Eye, the best of which were imported from China in the 12th century. I used ribbon as a knotting medium to bridge basketry and ceramics. The knotting medium simulates clay's flexibility before it is fired and its reflectiveness after firing and glazing.

Lime Collar, 5" x 5" x 5", Synthetic Ribbon

EJ: We have Geoffrey Budworth's The Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework, which describes over two hundred knots and their history. They have such colorful names: The Tarbuck, The Palomar, The Clinging Clara. You mention using the Vertical Clove Hitch. In your video, I think I saw you using the Chinese Button knot. Do you have a favorite knot? What other knots do you use?

EBL: The classic book on knotting is The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley. Knotting undoubtedly predates recorded history. Macramé is the descriptive art term for most of my decorative pieces. The Double Vertical or Horizontal Half Stitches are my workhorses. I use other knots as the subject requires.

Ice Cream Studies in Lee's Studio

EJ: You sometimes use shiny ribbon for your teacups. What are the factors for choosing your materials? Smooth as opposed to causing friction? Weight? Thickness? Sheen? Colored or Multicolored?

EBL: Choice of material is important. My focus has always been on small, intimate pieces. I continue to ponder and explore the possibility of giving voice to that intimacy. The medium in crafts is the vocabulary. The visuals evoke, recall, stimulate, and give the viewer time to pause and reflect.

EJ: Do you work with special tools such as fids or netting needles or round-billed pliers? In the artmobia.com interview you say your work can "progress in many directions simultaneously." For instance, with an ice cream cone that has three overlapping patterns in the waffle: do you visualize the three as a single integrated pattern? And then plan how to create them as a continuous surface like a basket weaver?

Swan Ring, 6" x 4" x 3", Flax Linen

EBL: Knotting is one of the most direct techniques of the fiber arts. There is a minimum of equipment required––scissors, clamps, foam core boards, and a few needles of different sizes and with exaggerated eyes. But what is important is a vivid imagination, the willingness to experiment, cultivated visualization, organized planning, and patience.

EJ: Swan Ring fascinates me because it is both representational and abstract. It has vessel-like, see-through, and enclosed spaces: every possibility. A ring-like base seems to connect to a swan amidst reeds. How did this piece come about? Did you see the swan as you were working? Or does it remain an abstraction to you?

EBL: Swan Ring is my venture into making macramé jewelry and realizing that making rings is a completely open venue.

River Huai, 19" x 19", Cotton Embroidery Floss Over Linen

EJ: In the same interview you say the "distinction between warp and filling is interchangeable." Wow. That is a big deal. Is this what allows you to work sculpturally and in many directions at once?

EBL: Knotting, along with crocheting, is possibly the most direct of fiber techniques. In weaving, the distinction between warp and filling is maintained by the loom. Treating the warp and fill as interchangeable is the crux to knotting in the round. There is no starting point, it is possible to start in the middle and work in any number of directions.

––Elizabeth Johnson

(elizabethjohnsonart.com)

edited by Matthew Crain

(instagram.com/sarcastapics)

July 2022