Lee Bul (b. 1964, Yeongju; lives and works in Seoul) works across a diverse range of media—from drawing, sculpture, and painting to performance, installation, and video—in examining the intricacies of shared human consciousness and the myths and folklore that accompany history. She investigates the liminal space between binaries such as the individual and the collective, and contradictory feelings such as isolation and claustrophobia. Her installations and sculptures explore universal themes including the utopian desire to achieve perfection through technological advances and the dystopic suspicions and failures that often result. Though varied in material and content, the works are united in their exploration of structural systems—from the individual body to larger architectural frameworks that encompass cities and utopian societies. For Lee Bul, humankind’s fascination with technology ultimately refers to our preoccupations with the human body and our desire to transcend flesh in pursuit of immortality. This interest often materializes in her work in the form of a cyborg—a being that is both organic and machine—the closest thing to a human that truly achieves this ideal. Lee Bul considers the cyborg a conceptual metaphor in its personification of social attitudes to technology; simultaneously a paragon and a monster.
李昢(1964年生於韓國瀛洲;於韓國首爾定居)從事於各種媒體 – 從繪畫、雕塑、表現藝術,裝置和視頻 - 透過媒體審視人類意識的覆雜性,以及歷史裏的神話和民間傳說。她研究二元性之間的邊界空間如個人和集體,以及人類矛盾的情感,如孤立和幽閉恐懼癥。她的裝置和雕塑探索大命題,例如通過科技進步實現烏托邦,以及經常導致對敵托邦的質疑和失敗結果。雖然材料和內容有所不同,但這些作品在結構系統上是統一的 – 從個體到涵蓋城市和烏托邦社會的更大的框架。對李昢來說,人類對科技的迷戀最終指向人體和人類追求永生的欲望,她的作品之中經常以機器人的形式存在 – 有機和機械的混合體 – 最接近人類理想的形態。她將機器人隱喻為社會對科技態度;同時是完美之物和怪物。