Woongcheol Lee
- Artist
1983, Busan
Woongchul Lee (b.1983) lives and works in Seoul, South Korea. He explores the intersections of materiality, technology, and speculative thinking through an interdisciplinary practice that spans video, installation, and sculpture. Woongchul’s work constructs spaces for critical reflection on perception and the evolving relationship between the human body and digital environments. Recent exhibitions include The Line – Mirror of Memory at Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art (2024), Memories of Black Stone at Ingahee Gallery (2024), and Choreography; Between Drawing and Design at Platform-L (2018). His works have been supported by major art foundations and featured in leading art institutions across Korea.
Related artist videos
- Title
- Philosopher’s Stone: The First Object
- Year
- 2024
- Duration
- 4 min 5 s
- Format & Technical
single-channel video, 16:9
- Contact
- Philosopher’s Stone: The First Object / Lee Woongcheol
In Philosopher’s Stone, Lee Woongcheol turns his attention to humanity’s pursuit of transformation and meaning through matter. Unlike the more dystopian vision in Perspective, this work explores the potential for human wisdom and creation. The video juxtaposes actual imagery of the Pantheon with digital reconstructions, merging myth, science, and technology. Taking the diamond ― a substance traditionally formed through eons of geological pressure ― as a metaphor, the artist examines how contemporary science now replicates this process in artificial labs. The work questions the modern-day equivalent of alchemy: how technology, once inspired by myth, has now begun to materialize these ancient dreams.
Using the raw stone as a central symbol, Philosopher’s Stone expands into a broader inquiry into materials as both natural resources and technological tools. The work explores the blurry boundary between mythical archetypes and observable phenomena, raising questions about humanity’s enduring longing for transcendence across time and cultures.
Stills