Behncke Gallery – MUNICH
Love Like a Bouquet
My work explores a broken love and the passage of time it left behind.
Beneath the Delft blue, I retrace those fragments on paper and porcelain,
mysteriously traveling through the vanished hours of love.
Flowers are beautiful while they live, yet, like love, they are destined to wither. Believing in eternity, we watch them fade, feeling the bittersweet ache of impermanence. No matter how much we try to revive them, some things are beyond our grasp—wilted flowers linger as symbols of pain and distrust, drifting out of reach.
As time passes, the dried flowers we occasionally encounter have lost their color, yet they carry traces of the vibrant hues and scents that once filled our space—our love in full bloom. Even the vanished fragrance and colors remain, like fossils in the heart, preserving the memory of what once was. Looking back at the pure and beautiful—but imperfect—versions of ourselves, we feel gratitude for those fleeting moments of love. It was because of them that we were happy.
Jae-Min Lee drew inspiration for “Love Like a Bouquet” from the blue plates he and his partner collected over time and during their travels, transforming their shared rituals and gestures into a visual narrative. To express a love that was brief yet intense, delicate as paper and easily shattered, he used the lightness of watercolor and paper, taking cues from the decorative motifs of Royal Delft porcelain.
The edges of the plates are filled with blooming flowers, evoking the fullness of love and the joy of those fleeting moments. The center features symbols drawn from animation, comics, cinema, and landscapes, representing the fragmented and tender emotions of a love that could not endure. Words left unsaid at parting are woven into the composition, capturing the portrait of a love that has broken yet lingers in memory.
© Julia Milberger I Jaemin Lee
