Venice Biennale: Lee Hyung-koo

The Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale was filled with the work of Lee Hyung-koo, who presented “The Homo Species,” an interesting mix of visual distortion apparatus for the human body along with realistic-looking skeletal remnants of American cartoon characters. Lee says that he experienced “undersized Asian male complex” when he left home to go to grad school in the States, and began constructing devices like the helmet above, which uses convex lenses to increase the size of features like eyes and mouth. The exhibition features similar devices for arms, legs and torso along with displays of plastic surgery tools. Lee’s been working on his Animatus series for a few years, rendering Bugs Bunny and scenes like the eternal chase between Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner as fossil sculptures. Pictured above, the cartoon character Tom and Jerry.