ART-TRIBUTE:Lee Bul-Crash,Part I

Throughout her 30-year artistic career, Lee Bul has been witness to South Korea’s evolution, from military dictatorship to democracy in perpetual confrontation with North Korea. Her works attest to an intense reflection of both historical and political discourses, to the challenges of globalisation and technical progress, but also to the pursuit of ideals of human and social perfection, and their potential failure (Part II).

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Gropius Bau Archive

Lee Bul’s first solo exhibition in Germany entitled “Crash” is on presentation at Gropius Bau in Berlin. The exhibition seeks to enthral and spark the imagination of many as a multi-sensory experience composed of several experi-mental elements. The works on display are characterised not only by sensual expressiveness and humor, but also by Lee Bul’s own experiences with and subtle allusions to the history and politics of Korea. Her expansive stage sets and landscapes experiment with unusual materials such as mother-of-pearl, crystals, leather or velvet, revealing imaginative topographies and revisiting utopia. The exhibition is organised around the thematic focal points of her work; each section is arranged chronologically to lead the visitor through a developmental trajectory of her work. On presentation are: documentation from the artist’s early performances, sculptural works from series such as “Monster” and “Cyborg”, key pieces from utopia-inspired sculptures, recent immersive installations, drawings and paintings as well as Lee Bul’s latest artwork “Scale of Tongue”. Born in South Korea in 1964, Lee Bul grew up as the daughter of two activists in a politically charged environment, amid turbulent social changes. South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s was a period of transition from military dictatorship to democracy, and of development in modernisation and economic strength. After graduating in sculpture from Hongik University, Seoul in 1987, Lee Bul shifted her artistic practice from the studio to public space performances. With these works, she called into question the perception of “female” beauty and crucially the role of women in society. For example, in “Cravings” (1989), she went against the typical artistic convention by donning a monstrous form made from soft fabric that featured tentacle-like limbs. During the performance “Abortion” (1989), she hung naked and upside down for nearly two hours, tied to a corset, alluding to the suffering associated with having an abortion, which is still illegal in Korea. When Lee Bul started her widely known series “Cyborg” (1997–2011), she turned almost entirely away from performance to explore three-dimensional sculptural works and the pursuit of perfection by fusing humans and machines. The poses portrayed by these female cyborgs recall iconic, classical sculptures such as the Venus of Milo, while their buxom proportions are typical of depictions of Western women in sexually-charged Japanese comics and cartoons. Every figure in this series is, however, in some way incomplete. Their missing heads or limbs suggest that the notion of the “perfect” figure is still undergoing transformation. In Lee Bul’s later work, the cyborgs take on darker and more complex manifestations with references to surrealist archetypes. The artist calls these extravagant hybrids, both living organism and machine, “anagrammatic morphologies”. Her paintings and wall-mounted works made of silk, leather and mother of pearl such as “Untitled (Silk Painting–Yellow)”, “Untitled (Silk Painting–Black)”, “Untitled (Mekamelencolia–Yellow Velvet # 1)” and “Untitled (Willing To Be Vulnerable-Velvet # 6 DDRG24OC)” are shown in this exhibition for the first time and attest to the artist’s profound and long-standing interest in experimenting with organic materials. Lee Bul’s examination of bodies led her to explore models of utopian urban landscapes. In 2005 she began creating models inspired by modernist architectural designs. These complex sculptures and accompanying works on paper and canvas form an imaginative topography of utopian aspiration and failure. The topographies seem to expose the inner workings of her earlier works and become a metaphor for the networked, subterranean root-like systems of our cities, and furthermore for societies and their utopian ideas. Lee Bul’s visions of an ideal society are inspired, among other things, by the architectural fantasies of German architect Bruno Taut, particularly by his “Alpinen Architektur” (1919), in which buildings recall enormous mountain ranges. It is Lee Bul’s interest in how perfection is pursued that links these visionary landscapes to her earlier work. Lee Bul’s later works allude to various cultural and intellectual references, from critical theory to the dystopian dream worlds of speculative fiction and films. During the development of her oeuvre, Lee Bul’s work evolved from large-format compositions such as “Mon grand récit: Weep into stones …” (2005), where she collides together two divergent utopian architectural visions, into immersive installations that alter our perception in particular through the use of mirrors. “Bunker (M. Bakhtin)” (2007/2012), a black, rocky mountain with a cavernous interior that can be accessed through a large crevice, transports us into a disorienting soundscape, whereas the labyrinthine works “Via Negativa” (2012) and “Via Negativa II” (2014) interrupt and disturb our sense of space with highly reflective surfaces. The drawings presented in all parts of the exhibition provide insight into Lee Bul’s creative thought process, revealing the evolution of her three-dimensional works and how various themes flow intertwined across her entire body of work. “Willing To Be Vulnerable-Metalized Balloon” (2015-16) is a 17-meter-long sculpture evoking the Hindenburg Zeppelin and referencing its disaster in 1937. Lee Bul’s latest work, “Scale of Tongue”, was originally conceived as a form of portable architecture and recalls a boat’s hull, an improvised shelter, or a mountainous landscape, and subtly alludes to the Sewol ferry accident on 16/4/2014. The MV Sewol incident serves as an internal point of reference, only becoming evident at the sight of the boat, which slowly disintegrates into abstract forms and merges with the formations of the surrounding landscape.

Info: Curator: Stephanie Rosenthal, Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, Berlin, Duration: 29/9/18-13/1/19, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 10:00-19:00, www.berlinerfestspiele.de