Time 2.24.2022 ( Russia Attacks Ukraine )

This work of mine is to express a very evil event in our time. The Ukrainian people will definitely defeat the invaders. Justice belongs to Ukraine.

I am very grateful to John for his criticism of this piece.

Fong Fai

I have written about fong Fai’s work many times. Admittedly, I always get too lost in fanciful descriptions of his brushwork and expressionist abstraction to delve more deeply into the conceptual side of his work. However, (I make no promises, I am susceptible to indulging in endless descriptions of mark-making), I would like to take a stab at considering the less abstract aspects of his wonderful abstraction. Time 2.24.2022 ( Russia Attacks Ukraine ) is a simultaneously extremely figurative and abstract depiction of the fog of war. Even during a war we are "prepared" for (how can anyone truly be prepared for such barbarity?) is immediately consumed by the haze of tragedy and ambiguity engulfing the worst human endeavors. We can know what side we are on, what outcome we expect, what outcome we hope for, and vaguely understand how events progress. Still, there is always an all-consuming confusion about such an evil and idiotic endeavor as violent imperialism (or, for that matter, any imperialism). Abstraction is, in many ways, a rejection of rationality, and war is always a rejection of rationality.

kyungsoo lee’s Forever Ukraine is a testament to the versatility of painting. Lee makes a political statement through a color palette and a name. Perhaps, if I were more in-tuned with the Ukrainian people's struggle against imperialist aggression, I would have been unable to see blue and yellow without thinking of their flag. However, I am only a bystander and regrettably needed the title and description to connect the blues and yellows to the current plight of the Ukrainian people. However, once my art-poisoned mind understood this association, the painting took on new depths. Lee does not celebrate the heroinism of Ukrainian partisans through depictions of war and violence but hope and beauty. Flowers are the promise of peace, the promise of renewal and rebirth. "They can cut down a thousand roses, but they can never stop the coming of the spring!”