ART CITIES:N.York-Lee Bul
Lee Bul is considered one of the foremost women artists from Asia to emerge in the international art scene in the ‘90s. Her artistic practice represents humanity’s desire for a utopian existence. It’s a desire that is doomed to failure, but it is still driven by humankind’s wanton need for the realization of impossible dreams. We explore some of her most iconic works.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Lehmann Maupin Gallery Archive
Lee Bul is an iconoclast, whose creativity expands the visionary fantasies of humankind and of some of its most prominent futuristic and utopian thinkers. Born to leftist dissident parents in a remote village in South Korea during the military dictatorship of Park Chung-Hee, the artist majored in sculpture from Hongik University but her interest quickly diversified into other techniques including Performance Art. She incorporated her own body, contradicting general perceptions of idealized human appearance, sexuality, gender, and rebuking the repression of women within a patriarchal society. In the late ‘80s, she became prominent in the underground art circuit as a leader and founding member of Museum, a loose collective of idiosyncratic artists, performers and musicians still influential today. Lee Bul presents two installations at Lehmann Maupin Gallery in New York, “Civitas Solis IV” (2016) and “Souterrain” (2012-16) that reference a futuristic vision imagined through utopian ideology and aesthetics. “Civitas Solis IV” is inspired by the 17th century novel City of the Sun, written by the Tommaso Campanella, which visualizes a city formed of concentric walls housing an egalitarian community. Incorporating the artist’s own interests in architecture, modernity, and aerial cityscapes, the quadrant-shaped structure forms a full circle in its reflection, referencing Campanella’s circular ideal city. A series of small, intricate, metal sculptures and an assortment of light bulbs are dispersed throughout the elevated mirrored platform. The effect of the reflective surfaces of the installation challenges the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, giving way to the infinite possibilities of human will and imagination. “Souterrain” is a fully immersive tunnel-like space constructed from mirrors attached to wooden panels. Before entering the structure, the viewer catches glimpses of the mirrored interior, which invites curiosity and intrigue. Once inside, the mirrored surfaces appear to collapse and the viewer is more self aware of their own distorted reflection, transforming feelings of euphoria to a more claustrophobic sensation. This duality relates directly to Lee Bul’s skepticism toward the promise of technological utopias. Lee Bul presents the human impulse to promote visionary and idealistic notions within the structures that surround us daily—our adornments, buildings, and institutions—as an attempt to fulfill the illusive promise of a truly egalitarian and harmonious existence.
Info: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 536 West 22 Street, New York, Duration 12/1-11/2/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.lehmannmaupin.com
