SPACE March 2025 (No. 688)
Exhibition view of ‘Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound’ ©Tate (Larina Fernandes)
Mire Lee’s first large-scale exhibition in the U.K. is now on show at Tate Modern as a part of the museum’s long-term partnership with Hyundai Motors Group. Lee, who is known for her experiments with various industrial materials and expressions of mechanised organic bodies in Seoul and the Netherlands, is unveiling a large sculptural installation that is inspired by the museum building’s former identity as the Bankside Power Station.
As the old oil turbine that hangs via the original ceiling crane slowly spins into life, the connected silicon hoses pump out a reddish liquid which is absorbed by the fabric pieces that hang loosely on chains to be reborn as Lee’s Skin sculptures. The actions of the technician on-site, who repeatedly transfers these wet pieces to the dryer like in a fabric manufacturing factory, resemble the shedding of the building’s outer skin.
While using heavy machinery to recall the museum building’s industrial past, the artist also captures the dualistic and innate aspects of life by placing the human and machine, softness and hardness, inside and outside, and individual and community in contact. Aside from inviting one to perceive inanimate industrial materials such as silicon, steel, and chains as animate things, Lee’s approach and the artwork’s movements draw viewers into experiencing a spectrum of distinct and contrasting human emotions such as anxiety, hate, fear and hope, love, and compassion. The exhibition will be on display in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall until Mar. 16.
