Yein Lee at Kurzbauergasse Oida

Artist: Yein Lee

Exhibition title: Foreign Object Debris

Venue: Kurzbauergasse Oida, Vienna, Austria

Date: June 1 – July 10, 2022

Photography: Kunstdokumentation / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Kurzbauergasse Oida, Vienna

A lady in the mirror sneaks out of it. She is one of those reticent about her personal affairs. She looks around where she is.

a house / an operating theatre / an abattoir / a workshop / a car repair center / a laboratory /

It is for sure the place where both her bionic and mechanical components can be handled. The world is in a future dream, cast from the past. My zirconia molar is fixed with a metal screw. Reality is bleeding colors, like visual defects on a cracked screen. It is dubious whether we live in a science fiction, or half-fictionalized world where things are sometimes not as bad as in post-apocalyptic pandemic films.

Her skin is

prickling / smooth / metallic / wet / or / airy /

Like the skin of a frog, light penetrates her, slightly shining through. Her inner bionic components are out. Outer components are in. Electrical wires are crawling and growing all on bodies.

She has two legs / no, four legs / perhaps three hands / or none / it doesn’t matter anymore. When she ‘says’, you might hear her as if she echoes / vibrates / or clicks. / Humans hear birds chirping as a beautiful sound, when actually the birds are saying: “Who wants to fuck with me.” Flaky cells are getting exfoliated. This is a usual thing, you know? As if skin cells have own will, they are crawling around her. Whilst she keeps falling apart, her body keeps regenerating and rejuvenating. Why are all things not staying still? What’s the matter of all body horrors? It is cheesy to say, yet she just wants to understand what it is to be normal, not normal.

A vanity table is a place where a lot of sculpting takes place. Shaping form with shading on the skin, getting rid of troubles, and looking into the self. She remembers the examination. The mechanic had a hard time understanding her body. For example, where her vein is and whether she actually needs a stitch-up. She sits down on the chair and looks into the mirror where she came out. A foreign object is defined as any kind of outside contaminant introduced to the body and causes system errors. It is often something you have to get rid of, whether it is an aircraft or a human body, to function again.

Examples of foreign object debris include:

Tools, parts and loose hardware
Building materials
Paper, paper clips, pens, coins and badges
Fragments of broken pavement
Trash, food wrappers and beverage containers
Rocks, sand and loose vegetation
Baggage tags and pieces of luggage
Hats, rags and gloves
Birds, wildlife and stray animals
Volcanic ash
Humans

She tries to find a foreign matter which caused a malfunction in bionic components. It is blocking her cells from growing. After getting rid of it, she has to reconnect them to her microchip again. It is agonizing to connect these two parts together. It is not as easy as we would want it to be. Forceps are grabbing her; pieces and scissors snip unnecessary reality. New reality gets stapled with leftovers of foreign matters. She remembers reading 7 Seeds. The three main characters arrive in the post-apocalyptic future long after a meteorite hits Earth. A new species has evolved, as if the Earth had repeated its prehistory.

One of the main characters finds a preserved spore from shiitake mushroom – yes, the one we know. The exposed shiitake spore grows on the new species but not on the characters, and in the end causes mutation and natural disaster. One character says, “We are the foreign matter on this new Earth. So the nature is trying to get rid of us.” She looks at the unknown matter that she found in her body. Foreign matter are often considered something we have to get rid of. Instead, can we think of them as misplaced things? As the character said, to this earth, humans are also foreign matter.

Installation View of Foreign Object Debris, Yein Lee, 2022, Photography by kunst-dokumentation

Yein Lee, But in the end, what’s the difference with the found object debris and me?, Electrical wire, Epoxy putty, Found objects, Steel, Acrylic ink, 115 x 110 x 163 cm, 2022

Yein Lee, Healing process, Get rid of the foreign matter, Electrical wire, Epoxy putty, Found objects, Steel, Acrylic ink, LED strips, 100 x 52 x 184 cm, 2022

Yein Lee, Tools and Shelves for liquid bodies, Steel, Found Objects, Stainless steel, Spray paint, 93 x 47 x 150 cm, 2022

Yein Lee, Proper amount of Pathos, Caring, and Necessity of other beings. A cat can’t groom her forehead, Electrical wire, Epoxy putty, Found objects, Steel, Acrylic ink, LED strips, 170 x 50 x 134 cm, 2022

Yein Lee, Perception, Fiction and Reality of One, Mirrors, Steel, Spray Paint, LED strips, 172 x 60 x 166 cm, 2022