Eusung Lee Tummo, 2025

Tummo refers both to a fierce goddess embodying inner fire and fervor, and to a meditative practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Without prior knowledge, the artist once experienced sensations akin to this practice, only to discover more than a decade later that it was a recognized form of meditation. By invoking this concept as the title of sculpture, Lee connects it to the very operative principle of sculpture itself: a singular entity at rest, yet synchronizing with the body’s innate forces. This mode of work crystallized during the pandemic in 2020 and has since evolved in close dialogue with the artist’s broader practice.

Lee finds imagery through forms linked to the human body and pursues long processes to render these into visual expression. Among the key concepts is “speed”—an elusive abstraction, yet one that can register as an overwhelming physical sensation for some, or merely a fleeting context or localized worldview for others. This body of work emerges from the artist’s interest in objects that engage with the body and can be evaluated socially and visually. Typically, kiln-dried timber—scaled to the human body and often intended for furniture—is combined with readymade objects. Since 2019, Lee has collected such body-scaled wooden materials, employing them as drawing-like grounds through which to explore sensations of release, tension, or pain, using them as spaces upon which energies and affects can be inscribed alongside other disparate materials.