"Pallet in Repose (Portal)" (2019) is Chan’s first ever installation piece that consciously combines painting and sculpture at the same time and one example of her ongoing series of installations engaging with transport pallets. Even though Chan doesn’t usually make painting and sculpture at the same time, and the two mediums are inherently different, they both share some recurrent motifs and feelings and they derive from a process-based approach. With painting, all the problems are confined within the canvas, whereas with sculpture, the awareness of its surroundings becomes a key factor to focus on.
In "Pallet in Repose (Portal)" Leelee Chan removes the original core components of value from discarded product waste (wooden pallets, pink foam packaging blocks, half-moonshaped glasses). An arch-shaped glass – adorned with pink foam, transparent resin and transport-related materials – is set within a wooden pallet slightly raised above the floor. This sculptural constituent is linked to the wall-mounted painting behind it, intermixed with collage elements, and forms a single artwork by way of an outlined section in the painting that from a certain perspective, aligns with the curve of the glass. The materiality and the design previously used for auxiliary functions are neatly integrated to rebuild a series of elaborate, skeletonized structures, wisely recalling perceptions of nature.
The work completes with the viewers’ engagement, as they look back and forth between the two in a circular movement. One can experience different images by e.g. looking down upon the sculpture through its reflecting surfaces and stepping back. The viewer’s perception is always in play because our eyes don’t look at things, they look through things.