Transformers

In the unique 2-story space of Lehman Maupin Gallery, you can view Korean artist Lee Bul’s latest sculptures from above and below and discover the fascinating complexity of her architecturally inspired works.  Suspended from the ceiling and combining stainless steel, aluminum, mirror, wood, glass beads, and more, the striking hard-edged sculptures suggest many forms including buildings, spacecrafts, satellites, and origami. Make sure to look up close at the sculptures and you will be surprised at how intricately crafted they are and the numerous decisions being made per square inch with the selection and application of materials.

Lee was very involved in the installation of the show and notice the subtle drama of how the works interact with one another.  The play of shadows along the high walls adds to the visual excitement of the show.

Lee reveals the steps of her process to create the large-scale sculptures in her drawings and maquettes on view in the upstairs gallery space.  The complexities of the forms are first worked out in the sensitively rendered 2-D drawings and then in the 3-D maquettes.  Much to people’s surprise, despite the hi-tech quality of the work Lee does not use the computer to generate the forms.  See if you can match the drawings and maquettes with their final sculptural form.  It’s remarkable to see how the solid forms of the maquette are realized in the final sculptures as closed and open planes of metal, wood, and mirror along with a dazzling multitude of small elements.

Before leaving the 2^nd floor, don’t miss Lee’s sculpture Sternbaum No.28 (2010) that provides the opportunity to see the “chandelier-like” form of her previous work.  Even though she’s using many of the same materials including steel, aluminum, and beads, this form is rounded and curvy compared to the hard-edged sculptures hanging below.  Also, make sure to check out her drawing Study for The Infinite Starburst of Your Cold Dark Eyes (2009) and note how the exquisite female body is actually merged with the façade of a building. Lee has had long-term involvement with the human body and machine and is well known for her earlier cyborg sculptures .

The gallery press release mentions that Bul’s architectural environments “…appear haunted by specters of the historical avant-garde – from Piranesi’s labyrinths to the Futurist dreams of Antonio Sant’Elia and closer to the present, the cataclysmic visions of Lebbeus Woods.”  Although the work initially appears most closely connected to architecture, Bul has been involved in an ongoing exploration of invented landscapes and this interest is also present in the current work.  You may see it most clearly in the “highway” sculptures hanging in the first gallery.  These visually enticing sculptures are impressive in their execution as one continuous form and the painstaking hand process of applying mirrored tiles or pieces of fabric along their circuitous route.  What associations of landscape and body do these works conjure up for you?

Hear Lee Bul and others discuss the exhibition: http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/#/video/

Lee Bul
Lehman Maupin – 201 Chrystie Street
Until June 19, 2010