Lee Hae-hyo’s works have been regularly featured in London – at Albemarle Gallery, at the current HADA Contemporary exhibition, and in the Korean Eye collection.
Regular gallery-goers will have noted that all his works have a puzzling name which looks like a non-sensical mathematical equation. Thanks to Sun at HADA Contemporary, the secret of his naming convention can be revealed: the formula simply represents his name and the date of completion.
Take the above work, entitled 0121-1110=1090510, from the catalogue of the current HADA show. This title can be split into two segments: 0121-1110=1, which represents Lee’s name; and the date 10 May 2009 in YYMMDD format. It takes a bit of imagination to get from 이재효 to 0121-1110=1. The trick is that you have to cheat a little by rotating the final 효 through 90 degrees. Here’s how it works:
So there you have it folks.