The Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee gained acknowledgment as an artist who created a laboratory-like space for biological experiments and odd optical devices. Lee’s distinctive way of work reveals a new way of spacing out the order of objects, a way far from a human centered understanding.
His ongoing project from 1995, ‘The Objectuals’ presents an outstanding exploration of transformed biology. In his portraits series, Lee depicts wearable devices (sculpturally engineered optical helmets designed by the artist) that changed the body’s proportions using visual or physical means – magnifying the eyes and mouth, or visually blowing up the head to a large or small proportion. His works reveal the perceptions of what can be seeming as real body, portraying the human craving to visually manipulate the body figure.
