Lee Bul explores a yearning for utopia and transcendence in her recent ‘Perdu’ series. Perdu translates to ‘lost’ in French, in English it can mean hidden or obscure; it is also the word for a soldier assigned to hazardous duty. The series represents all of these meanings through the artist’s material and process.
Each painting takes two months to create: the artist applies a combination of stone powder and acrylic, which is then sanded down before the process is repeated. Mother of pearl glimmers throughout the piece, underscoring Bul’s desire to juxtapose the organic and the artificial. The fragmented shapes formed by the intricate trace of dark lines against the pale background call to mind the artist’s ‘Cyborg’ and ‘Anagram’ series.
Lee Bul’s Perdu CXXII (2021) is presented by Thaddaeus Ropac (London, Paris, Salzburg, Seoul) in the Galleries sector at Art Basel Hong Kong.
Director: Kendra Koh
Production: Carmen Cheng
Camera: Sam Chan and Fuk Pak Jim
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