Lee Hyungkoo’s Animal Objectuals

Images Courtesy of Lee Hyungkoo and Arario Gallery

A hanging row of stained lab coats, shelves of clear plastic helmets. An area full of chicken and rabbit bones—some plastic, some real. A stainless steel operating table, where a faux human skeleton wears one of artist Lee Hyungkoo’s plastic helmets. “This is my laboratory,” Lee explains. “I don’t consider it a studio.”

If the place has a sterile, institutional feel, it’s understandable; Lee has become a surgeon of sorts, modifying the human body through pieces like his face-altering helmets, a major part of “The Objectuals,” his first solo show at Sungkok Art Musuem in Seoul, 2004.

Fresh off of two successful solo exhibitions in Korea—“The Objectuals” at Sungkok and “Animatus” at Arario Gallery—and with a forthcoming solo exhibition this June 2007 in the Korean Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, Lee is developing his unique resume as a sculptor/ installation artist/ video artist /pseudo-doctor /pseudo-archaeologist.

One theory goes that art comes from hardship, which Lee had no shortage of after moving to the United States. After graduating in 1998 from Hongik University, Korea’s top art school, Lee moved to New York, curious about its art scene. But the language barrier and lack of a bankable degree translated into seemingly unending twelve-hour shifts at part-time jobs to make the rent, leaving little time for art. Having few friends, what little free time Lee had was spent alone at galleries or museums.

After scraping by in Queens and Brooklyn for two years, Lee applied to MFA programs at Columbia and Yale, barely able to cover the application fees for both. He was accepted at Yale and was offered the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award.

From 2000 to 2002, while at Yale, Lee developed the plastic helmets and other body-altering devices, which eventually became part of “The Objectuals.” In 2001, Lee wore Helmet3 on a train from New Haven to New York. Video documenting the act shows Lee on the train and walking around New York for the day. The reactions of the passengers and people on the streets—from laughter to curiosity or horror—are almost as interesting as watching Lee himself.

Sitting in his Seoul laboratory, casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Lee explains that he has always been interested in ancient physiognomy (the use of facial features to assess character) and phrenology (the study of bumps on the skull to evaluate character)—both scientifically discredited, yet visually rich theories. Lee is fascinated with “face lines, body, and proportion.” He is intrigued by the way makeup or plastic surgery can alter the face or body, either temporarily or permanently.

A Device (Gauntlet1) that Makes My Hand Bigger was created while Lee was still living in New York. His roommate at the time, a bartender, gave him three whiskey glasses to use for the fingers. “When I put my hand inside [the piece] and filled it with water, it suddenly looked so big.” Next, he thought, “If I can change the size of my hand, why not experiment with my face?” This project was completed in 1998, predating his solo shows by several years. But at this early stage in his career, Lee already demonstrated an interest in manipulating the body; the seed for both “The Objectuals” and “Animatus” was then planted.

Portrait by 7Studio

“Animatus,” Lee’s second solo exhibition, was held in 2006 at Arario Gallery near Seoul. “Animatus” depicts cute and loveable cartoon characters in 3-D anatomical structures. The likes of Wile E. Coyote; Road Runner; Bugs Bunny; Tom and Jerry; Donald Duck; and Huey, Dewey, and Louie take on new meanings as the “skeletons” capture their familiar poses. Howard Rutkowski, auction director at Bonhams, describes Lee’s “Animatus” collection as “pop paleontology.” Although Lee says some people think the two exhibitions are worlds apart, he disagrees because the facial distortions from the helmets “remind me of cartoon character faces.”

The Arts Council Korea has chosen Lee to be the solo participant at the Venice Biennale, Korean Pavilion, which takes place June 10 to November 21, 2007. This is particularly noteworthy because the last Korean delegation included 15 artists. Lee is honored to represent Korea alone, since “the space is too small for many different kinds of work to exist well together.” He likes that the Korean Pavilion will have the kind of continuity that can only come from a solo exhibition.

The name of the exhibition is “The Homo Species,” and it will include an installation laboratory from “The Objectuals.” Elements from “Animatus” will be displayed in a different manner than before, lain out individually and encased in glass—“to me, it is more interesting to see these characters disconnected,” says Lee—along with a new human plastic skeletal piece made especially for the exhibit.

In preparation for the exhibit, Lee traveled to and shot another video of himself wearing one of his helmets in Venice. Much of the footage is of Lee walking around the vacant Venetian streets at night, but he also sips an espresso in public through a built-in straw in the helmet. Lee is considering expanding his video art to other cities in the world; he found that the people in Venice reacted differently from New Yorkers.

Lee feels his third solo exhibition at the Korean Pavilion is crucial for him. If it goes well, it will gain more international recognition for not only himself, but for other Korean artists as well.