Artist Lee Bul unveils sculpture on the facade of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art
‘Long Tail Halo’ series of 4 works… first exhibition by a Korean contemporary artist
“Several months spent figuring out the identity of the space… 10 hours of intense work every day”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), the largest art museum in the United States with a collection spanning 5,000 years from ancient civilizations to the present and visited by 5 million people a year, unveiled a sculpture by Korean artist Lee Bul on the facade on the 12th (local time). The works on the façade, which attracts the attention of millions of people, including museum visitors, New York citizens, and travelers from all over the world, are four works from the “Long Tail Halo” series. This is the first time that works by a Korean contemporary artist have been exhibited on the facade of the Met.
Yibul gained international attention in the late 1980s with performances such as “Abortion” and the exhibition of his fish-based work “Majestic Radiance” (1997) at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. He continues to exhibit at major art museums around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in the United States, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France, and the Hayward Gallery in London, England. In a Zoom interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on the 16th, he talked about the process from receiving an offer from the Met two years ago to unveiling the work.
● The countless links created by contradictions
The new works of Ibul are installed two on each side of the main entrance of the museum. The work next to the main entrance is reminiscent of a goddess statue, and the two works on the edge are in the form of a dog pouring something out. If you look closely at the works, you can see that they combine opposing elements such as up/down, left/right, inside/outside, black/white, and past/future.
The sculpture in the shape of a goddess statue looks hard on the outside, but the surface is made of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), a soft rubber. The surface is ground and various effects are applied to create a feeling like a painting painted with a brush. From a distance, it looks like a Greek statue, but if you look closely, the ‘Cyborg’ series comes to mind. It is an ambiguous form that is unclear whether it is the past, the future, the present, a sculpture, or a painting.
“It looks ancient, but it’s a powerful piece that speaks to our anxiety and hope for our future,” said Max Hollein, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “It’s a wonderful exploration of the complexity of the human condition.”
“We wanted to create as many different connections as possible,” Ibul explained.
“As soon as I got the Met’s invitation, I headed to the museum. I spent months figuring out the identity of the space, from the materials of the building to the people coming and going and their relationships. I was mindful of the vast culture the museum contained, as well as the fact that in front of it, there was a large number of people of various languages, cultures, and ages coming and going.”
The artist did not fix the visual language of the work to a specific era or region, but rather woven various contradictory elements to create an ‘open meaning’. The result is close to a ‘prism’ that allows passersby to see themselves.
“I want to see countless meanings created by the ever-changing environment and the people watching, such as the shadows created by the autumn sun, the slightly lower sunlight in winter, and the first snow or rain.”
● Even after being bitten by a king raccoon, he still focused on his work
The Met began the ‘The Genesis Façade Commission’ this year after receiving a five-year sponsorship agreement from Hyundai Motor Company. Regarding the reason for selecting Lee Bul for this project, Leslie Ma, curator of modern and contemporary art, said, “Lee Bul is a leading artist of his generation who has captivated audiences from various backgrounds for the past 40 years with a visual language that crosses the boundaries between abstract and figurative art.” He added, “This work allows viewers to feel different appearances depending on the angle or time through the creative use of materials.”
The duvet went through “a lot of experiments to make soft materials that are not often used outdoors endure the outdoors,” and “insides, the work is supported by extremely strong and complex structures.” In particular, it was made in a way that had never been done before, and almost all the processes were done by hand, excluding simple machines.
“From the moment I thought about using my own materials, I had to make everything myself. I had to take thousands of measurements to put a soft skin over the skeleton, and it was very difficult because if I got a phone call in the middle of the process, it would break my immersion.”
The production process was so intense that the work was completed and sent to New York a week before the opening. Lee Bul said, “I had to use physical strength and not forget the numbers, so I worked 10 hours every day without knowing how the day went by,” and confessed, “I regretted it once right after I started, but I couldn’t turn back, so I got absorbed like a running train after that.” He also said that he was bitten by a 15cm-long raccoon in the process.
“I got bitten on my left heel at 2 a.m. It was hard to get to the emergency room, so I looked it up and found that it would hurt a lot, but it wouldn’t kill me. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s okay,’ and continued working for a month, limping. But I was able to focus on it, and it was an indescribably enjoyable time.”
Reporter Kim Min [email protected]
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2024-09-19 07:31:27