Lee Bul has, from her early career, always been interested in the city. Born under the military dictatorship of South Korea in the 1960s, she graduated in the ’80s and her early work included street performances wearing full-body soft sculptures, before changing tack in her delivery, if not her commentary. Bul’s sculptural cityscapes from the later part of her career are currently the subject of a retrospective at Ikon, Birmingham, which includes a major new commission as part of the show.
Early 20th Century architect Bruno Taut has long been an important influence on Bul, and her new work after his crystal structures takes his optimism and strangles it, adding layers of glittering ornament to her city until it is dripping with excess, functionality choking on its own complexity, rendered almost grotesque by its opulence. Dystopian overtones haunt previous works too; in Mon grand récit, mountainous skyscrapers melt into a flowing mass as an LED sign flashes out a melancholy message from a 17th Century work by Sir Thomas Browne. Dates for the show are 10 September to 9 November.
Lee Bul
Mon grand récit: Weep into stones…, 2005
Mixed media
Photo, Watanabe Osamu
Collection, HITEJINRO CO., Seoul
Courtesy the artist, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
and Ikon
Lee Bul,
Excavation (detail), 2007
Photo, Patrick Gries
Courtesy the artist,
Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris
and Ikon
Lee Bull
Mon grand récit: Weep into stones… (detail), 2005
Mixed media
Courtesy the artist, PKM Gallery
Bartleby Bickle & Meursault, Seoul and Ikon
Lee Bul
Diluvium, 2012
Plywood on steel frame
View of “The Studio” section,
Lee Bul exhibition,
Artsonje Center, Seoul, 2012
Photo, Jeon Byung-cheol
Courtesy Studio Lee Bull, Seoul and Ikon
Lee Bul
Bunker (M.Bakhtin), 2007-2012
Installation view,
Lee Bul Exhibition,
Mudam Luxembourg (2013-14)
Mixed media
Photo © Remi Villaggi
Courtesy Studio Lee Bull, Seoul and Ikon
Lee Bul, 2013
Photo, Kim Jae-won
Courtesy Studio Lee Bul and Ikon
Lee Bul,
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham,
10 September – 9 November 2014,
ikon-gallery.org.
