Gayoung Lee

In the Weighing Words series, Lee chose five heavy sentences, then calculated their respective weight. For example, the weight of one sentence was calculated based on the amount of air that Lee could inhale within the room when it was spoken. Then Lee demonstrated in three ways how the weight of the spoken words left trace in their body.

 

In Weighing Words-Stigma, the keywords of the four sentences are made of wire. Then they are placed on various parts of my body, and the corresponding weigher is placed on it for 10 minutes. The heaviest sentence which was 1380kg was not performed due to safety reasons.

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In Weighing Words-Coarse Fare, the process of figuring out a text and digesting it to become a part of  body is seen as an endurance performance where Lee write and eat 20kg of handmade hardtacks. As the old biblical allusion of God’s word as bread, our language is what we eat, chew, and swallow until some of them become part of us, and the rest is expelled.

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In Weighing Words-Laundering, time is measured by the repeated chores. Repetitions of daily life that must be endured as long as the body is present slowly erases deeply engraved words. Lee made soaps proportional to the calculated weight of each sentence and carved the corresponding words into them. The soaps are then used to wash my daily clothes.

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