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M+, Hong Kong, © Lee Bul
Lee Bul 李昢
Sargasso
1998
Sargasso belongs to the Monster series of fabric sculptures by Korean artist Lee Bul, which draws from costumes that she made and wore for performances in the streets of Seoul and Tokyo. Sargasso is comprised of eleven parts that hang from a wall, and the title refers to the Sargasso Sea, a body of water bound by currents in the North Atlantic Ocean. This sea takes its own name from sargassum, a kind of floating seaweed, which provides visual cues to the sinewy forms Lee created. The work also refers to Jean Rhys’s 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which engages with gender relations in the context of British colonialism in the Caribbean. Specifically, Rhys challenges the depiction of a monstrous female character in the nineteenth-century novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. Lee’s Sargasso obliquely addresses these fraught associations between monstrosity and femininity on visual terms.
Lee’s works often evoke alien life forms or embody conflict between natural and man-made sources. The artist creates decorative motifs through hand-sewn bead and fabric work, a nod to Korean craft practices.
Lee’s works often evoke alien life forms or embody conflict between natural and man-made sources. The artist creates decorative motifs through hand-sewn bead and fabric work, a nod to Korean craft practices.
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