Kyu Sang Lee

Bearing Between the Wheel and the Cycle
2020
Positive retouch colours on Giclée print
60 x 65 cm

Bearing Between the Wheel and the Cycle engages in a dialogical interplay with Arnold Schönberg's No. 25, a seminal work from 1923 that pioneered the application of the Twelve-tone technique. This method, conceptualised by Schönberg, sought to deconstruct the hegemony of traditional key signatures in musical composition. Notwithstanding its avant-garde inception, the technique now predominantly resides within theoretical discourse, its practical utilisation in contemporary musical composition being markedly diminished.

In a deliberate synthesis of twelve-tone musical theory and the motif of the wheel—referential of Marcel Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel" (1913)—the work juxtaposes two distinct yet intertwined historical narratives. These narratives encapsulate pivotal moments of transition within 20th-century artistic and musical movements, tracing the lineage from modern to contemporary modalities. The photographs in "Bearing Between the Wheel and the Cycle" thus serve as a conduit for exploring these paradigmatic shifts, elucidating the complex dynamics and interrelations between evolving artistic forms and musical structures. This piece, therefore, represents not only a confluence of historical and cultural motifs but also a critical reflection on the trajectories of modern and contemporary artistic and musical developments.