» words were never enough « solo show by Mire Lee

About

In lieu of a vernissage, the gallery will have exceptional opening hours from 2-7pm, Thursday September 24th — Saturday September 26th. 

“The gut is sometimes angry, sometimes depressed, sometimes acutely self-destructive; under the stress of severe dieting, these inclinations come to dominate the gut’s responsivity to the world. At these moments any radical distinction between stomach and mood, between vomiting and rage is artificial. Here, a clear indication of what is meant by radical (pertaining to the root: foundational, essential, originary, primary) is important. I am not arguing that organs are indistinguishable from one another, or that psyche and soma are the same thing. Rather, I am claiming that there is no a priori, fundamental demarcation between these entities. [. . .] I am arguing that antidepressants alleviate bulimia because there is no radical (originary) distinction between biology and mood. Mood is not added onto the gut, secondarily, disrupting its proper function; rather, temper, like digestion, is one of the events to which enteric substrata are naturally (originally) inclined.”

From nascent stages Mire Lee has tested the limits of materials and mechanization, developing an alternative medium that escapes the standards of traditional sculpture. Her practice enters a realm in which the repetition of actions performed by machines paradoxically refuses to generate the same results, reflecting the artist’s conflicted domination-submission relationship with her materials which include PVC hoses, silicone, lubricants, grease and steel rods. Often employing minimal technologies such as electric motors and pumps, her hypnotic creations manifest in a deluge of constricted, mesmerizing convulsions packed with dread and anticipation. Viscous, impulsive and violent, Lee’s apparatuses simulate raw and unruly effects, triggering responses that delude the barriers between nausea and arousal.

Mire Lee (1988, Seoul) lives and works between Seoul and Amsterdam. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2020); Casco Art Institute, Utrecht (2019); Insa Art Space, Seoul (2014) and onground_jisangso, Seoul (2014). She has been featured in group exhibitions at Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2020); Friesmuseum, Leeuwarden (2020); Tunnel Tunnel, Lausanne (2019); the 15th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2019); AKINCI, Amsterdam (2019); the 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018); Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2018); Arko Arts Center, Seoul (2018). She has participated in residencies at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (2018); Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA Nanji Residency) (2017) and Cité internationale des arts, Paris (2015). Lee earned a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Sculpture at the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts (2012) and a graduate degree in media art from the same institution (2013). She has recently been shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize, winner to be announced 2021.

Made possible by the support of Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism of Korea, Korea Arts Management Service, and the grant program Fund for Korean Art Abroad

Excerpt: Elizabeth A. Wilson, “Gut Feminism”, differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies (Vol. 15, Issue 3), Duke University Press, 2004, pp. 20–21.

Image credit: Yeonsook / Rita