the Pitcairn Museum of Contemporary Art

Mire Lee & Sander Alblas

Thou shalt spit on romance and overcome melancholy

Mire Lee’s installations are never silent or immobile; with sound and movement Mire Lee evokes the suggestion of living material.
 
In her sculptures and installations, Lee explores how she can use her materials to depict states that touch on the human form. Clay, latex, silicones, fluids, and tubes are her basic materials. Controlled by her hands, mechanics, and pump systems, she creates forms and movements that evoke associations with, for instance, a trance state, the state of suspended animation and often erotic and sadomasochistic scenes.
 
According to Lee, clay has the special property of feeling like a living creature that needs to be cared for, and needs just the right amount of moisture or dryness to get into a certain shape. The material needs constant attention and is very fragile, with which Lee metaphorically connects to human relationships.*

This work was made in cooperation with Sander Alblas, advisor at the Ceramic Workcentre in Oisterwijk. The title of the work comes from one of Alblas’ old sticky notes. On it was a handwritten and half-erased sentence, about which Mire Lee said: “a kind of passive-aggressive passion opposed to the notion of romance and melancholy. Antagonism, while on the surface seeming pessimistic and hateful, is often served by imagination and desire. In the end, when it comes to art, the antagonistic subject becomes more and more in love”.
 
Mire Lee (Seoul 1988) lives and works alternately in Amsterdam and Seoul (Zuid-Korea).
She received her bachelor’s degree from the Seoul National University College of Fine Arts (2012) and 
was a resident at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam (2018/19). Exhibitions include: Casco Art Institute, 
Utrecht (2019) Art Sonje Center Seoul (2020), Kunstverein Freiburg(2021) and her work is currently on 
view at the Venice Biennale and the MMK in Frankfurt, among others.
 
*quote text fragment Kunst Museum Den Haag 2022
 
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