*I am Waking up Screaming*, Cables, Styrofoam, Epoxy putty, Spray, Fake Flowers, Brocken CD driver, Brocken Motherboard, PET sheet, 92 x 58 x 64 cm, 2021

The association of elements belonging to different realms lies at the core of Yein Lee’s vision. In her works that exist halfway between sculpture and painting, technology, biology, art are brought together, giving life to organisms that inhabit the interstitial space flowing between the different spheres of our present. The unifying element around which her work unfolds is the body, considered both as an emotional state and a social emblem that asks to be constantly reconfigured according to the social narratives in which it is immersed. Multiple materials are assembled and put into dialogue, giving life to entities that hover between imagination and reality. Fluidity seems to be a constant trait in the artist's creations, which are perturbing and alluring in their aesthetic. And fragility appears as an inevitable condition for the affirmation of identity within a dimension in perpetual transformation.

Would you like to introduce us to your practice and tell us how you relate to multi-disciplines?

In my practice, I’ve been focusing on the bodily matter as a field that embodies emotional states and social issues. My works often present elements like latex skins, plastic flesh, motorbike parts, organs, or metal bones with a painterly touch on them. Here the concept of the body doesn’t remain just in the human realm. I include body parts both from human or nonhuman beings like plants, birds or machines. This combination often shows organs without a body, an in-between state of life and death, and an emotional gesture is embedded in it. Currently, I cannot relate to a multi-disciplines approach as I’m primarily working on painterly sculptures or sculptural paintings. Still, I’m willing to try one day by including sound, set-up, and performance.

*Gatecrasher is Actually Quite Lovely*, Epoxy putty, styrofoam, spikes, fake flower, spray paint, electrical cable, 2020, Installation View of Crosspollination at Loggia, Vienna

How did your years of artistic training lay the foundations for your approach and vision, and how have these developed over the years?

Lately, I have looked back to how I grew up and what I was interested in. Within the current climate, thinking about identity made me realise how my artistic practice was built up over my very personal memories. Through my background history, my practice has developed. The materials and matters that I’m interested in came together naturally by adding my touch to them.

*We are Not Going to Drift Away*, Epoxy putty, styrofoam, spikes, fake flower, spray paint, 2020

What does the concept of hybridity mean to you? And how a body can become a hybrid organism through artistic creation?

Hybridity is about history, present and future. Different species have been combined genetically during our history, and they kept creating new species—cell to cell, plants to plants, animals to animals, human to human. Of course, sometimes, this occurs through cross-pollination processes. Genetic engineering between human and nonhuman spheres has been of great interest within the contemporary biotechnology field. And through the artistic practice, a body becomes an indication, an implication of what we face in society and culture. For me, it becomes a portal to invite viewers to the world that I imagined.

*I have been calling You*, styrofoam, epoxy putty, fake flower, spike, spray paint, 2020, Installation View of Crosspollination at Loggia, Vienna

What stirs your inspiration the most? And what are the phenomena you feel closest to from an aesthetic, historical, or social point of view?

I get inspiration from everywhere. Things pop up in my brain, and I question them. It could be a random object appearing along the street, a conversation with a colleague, or news reading. Perhaps, as more specific inspiration, I could mention the wetness of paint in Helen Frankenthaler’s works, the assemblage in the practice of Rauschenberg, 90’s cyberpunk pop culture, the body horror from 90’s Asian horror films like The Ring, Whispering Corridors, and The host. I was never a big fan of horror films, but it’s intriguing how horror films unfold in themselves a feeling of otherness.

*No Named*, latex, preowned object, stainless steel, 2019, Installation View of Symbiotic Agencies, Gallery in Körnerpark, Berlin

What primary meaning or feeling do you aspire to convey and express with your pieces and research?

The ambivalence between strength and fragility. Fragility always appears in my language as I believe that fragile bodies should always be considered regardless of the kind of future we draw. Instead of making all bodies perfect, we have to focus on how the surroundings can be enhanced and how we can change from what we can potentially create.

*Rejuvenate Body Order Now*, 2021, Installation View, Le Box, Toulouse

What are you working on at the moment, and what are your upcoming projects?

I’m working on a new series of sculptures and paintings for group shows in Berlin and L.A. and solo presentations, too. At the moment, I’m focusing on an expanded version of my last solo show in Toulouse. Also, I started to paint again on steel plates.