Leelee Chan’s Spiral Diaries, her second solo exhibition at Galerie Klemm’s, showcases sculptures exploring materiality, temporality, and transformation. Chan blends ancient relics, modern manufacturing, and natural phenomena into autonomous sculptural forms, creating dynamic constellations that span geological, cultural, and industrial timelines. Her works, both self-contained and part of an evolving practice, articulate a material intelligence rooted in her experiences. The spiral, a central motif, symbolizes growth, recursion, and nonlinear time, referencing natural forms like mollusk shells and cultural patterns encoding survival strategies. In Shapeshifter (Mitridae) (2025), a hand-carved onyx shell encases a 3D-printed steel spiral, evoking “impossible objects” and merging traditional craftsmanship with modern technology. This work challenges notions of purity and tradition, embodying the natural-artificial continuum. Chan repurposes found and industrial materials, as seen in Peculiar Pyramid (2024), which combines Tang dynasty fragments with aluminum and epoxy clay, questioning monumentality and labor systems. Wood Wide Web (2025) uses cast plastic pallet fragments to mimic mycorrhizal networks, drawing parallels between natural communication and global economic systems. Moth (2023) fuses petrified wood and pallets into wing-like forms, compressing human, geological, and ephemeral time. Maker’s Egg Cases (2025) blends hex nuts and glass to evoke industrial and marine environments, reflecting adaptive design. Spiral Diaries resists binary thinking, offering a poetic yet investigative vocabulary for complexity. Amid ecological and cultural challenges, Chan’s sculptures invite reflection and sensitivity to ambiguity, reimagining material histories and future potentials.
Leelee Chan: Spiral Diaries / Klemm's Berlin. Berlin (Germany), May 4, 2025. The exhibition runs until June 6, 2025.
