Artist Yein Lee contemplates today’s golden age of information and technology

The year is 2050, and the human race has operate out of pure genetic materials. Each one man or woman has been hybridised into a bio-mechanical creature related to cybernetic networks. The human knowledge is now quasi digital, and our feeling of interconnectedness is no for a longer time just religious. Artist Yein Lee’s installations reverse engineer this imagined foreseeable future, encouraging us to contemplate its implications from the standpoint of our existing day. Lee is presently dependent in Vienna, but her childhood was spent in South Korea. The technological wave that surrounds Korean culture continues to resonate within just her artwork. The artist speaks with STIR about what influences her observe, and inspires her to make.

Lee accomplished her Bachelor’s in Seoul wherever she studied standard Asian portray, concentrating on procedure and materials. Having said that, right after finishing this research she sought out a extra modern and experimental approach to artwork. She moved to study even more in Vienna in Austria. The radical shift in tradition permitted her to see Korean culture with new eyes. Lee has crafted her practice through this lens. The visible artist tells us about her early fascination with gadgets and tech devices. “My father was tremendous into new tech, so when I was increasing up, he would constantly purchase any new device he uncovered. New pcs, audio units, Bluetooth speakers and mp3 players. We saw how these products ended up obtaining smaller as they superior. Immediately after coming to Europe, I realised how Korea is a lot in advance of the European market place. In this article my mates use phones that are rather aged but in Korea everyone is constantly shopping for the newest product of every thing,” she suggests. 

Lee’s art installations are made employing a mixed palette of materials including metal, epoxy, plastic and acrylic. The modern artist also would make use of waste materials, reusing and recycling when maintaining regularity and coherency in the visual aesthetic, regardless of the myriad components. “I use a whole lot of electrical cable as a material since I just experienced so a lot of of these lying all over. I also grew up examining a lot of manga like Naruto and Sailor Moon, and there was a lot of metamorphosis of human people in them which motivated me also,” she mentions. Lee’s aesthetic influences also appear from science-fiction films like Ex-Machina and Blade Runner. The Korean artist says, “I don’t forget seeing Blade Runner and thinking hey this is not fiction, I utilized to reside in a put that appears just like that.”

Lee explores the human condition in today’s golden age of information and know-how. Her resourceful expression has transformed in excess of the several years from abstract sorts to additional recognisable constructions. She states, “Lately, I want to contextualise a bit nearer to the human variety, making use of the very same visual language. With a human form, the viewer can truly feel a specific empathy toward the creature they are seeking at. The human sort is a bridge to link with the viewer. I want to reflect latest culture, science fiction and the connected issues I am interested in.” This is noticeable in her collection of sculptures titled Foreign Objects Particles (2022) which show human-like types, manufactured using epoxy, plastic and cables, interacting with a person yet another. 1 immersive set up even exhibits this human-like kind pondering on their personal reflection in a mirror. This straightforward interaction of hunting at one’s individual reflection is comprehensive of vulnerability and intimacy. By some means, the action also looks to characterize modern society and its romance with technological know-how and the unidentified futures. The human kind demonstrates on its individual hybrid character, asking yourself where the lines amongst human and device commence to blur.

At a latest team exhibition titled Klammern aus denen Blätter Sprießen, hosted by Hunter Shaw Wonderful Artwork in Los Angeles, Lee showcased a visible artwork called Blooming On Cybernetic’s Spines (2022). The artist tells us, “I was seriously interested in this visual of how the egg gets this specific place on the table with the egg holder, how it would seem to appear much more critical than other individuals. It is clear and exhibits this hybrid system growing inside.” To the viewer, this installation could also reference the delivery of the hybrid kind, the long run of biotechnology and cybernetics.

The artist summarises the essence of her apply, and why she feels the relevance of her artistic inquiry by indicating, “I imagine I often attempt to express a specific diploma of caring for the otherness. The main of my observe is often observation of the otherness. Any person could be in the posture of the other. The otherness is fluid and the subjectivity is also fluid. I want the viewer to get this concept that metamorphosis and monstrosity is perhaps not that significantly absent from us.”