Once heavily polluted and dominated by a Mitsubishi plant, the Japanese island of Naoshima has been transformed since 1989 into an 'art island' by billionaire Sōichirō Fukutake. With 3,000 inhabitants and galleries sunk into hillsides designed by architect Tadao Andō, it has become a destination for contemplative art. Among its most spellbinding works is Porte Vers l'Infini (Gate to Infinity), an 11-metre-tall steel arch pinned between two boulders, inviting visitors to walk through toward the sea.
The sculpture's creator, Korea-born artist Lee Ufan, says: 'I want my work to take you to a place where you can feel the deep breath of the universe.' Turning 90 next month, Lee has two museums dedicated to him and is opening major shows in Venice (a retrospective covering his career from the late 1960s) and at Dia Beacon in New York. His early work was part of the Mono-ha movement, which explored how objects relate in nature.
Lee's first three-dimensional work, Relatum (formerly Phenomenon and Perception B), was a pane of glass cracked by a boulder – a nod to Marcel Duchamp and the clash between industry and nature. 'In the beginning, my work wasn't about being slow or quiet. It was more about violence and resistance,' he recalls. Another 1969 piece involved chasing huge sheets of paper in a Tokyo square, showing dialogue with material.
Although not a minimalist, Lee opposes overproduction. His Naoshima museum contains only 17 works and forbids photography inside. 'I want viewers to perceive the things I did not paint as much as the things I did,' he once said. His later series, such as From Line (1970s) and With Winds (1990s), demonstrate his mastery of paring down to essentials.
