Portrait of Lee Bul © Lee Bul. Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong. Photo: Dan Leung; Portrait of Salome Asega. Photo: James Emmerman
Artist & Curator Walkthrough: Lee Bul & Salome Asega on ‘Lee Bul. The Anatomy of Every Setting Sun’
On the opening night of ‘Lee Bul. The Anatomy of Every Setting Sun,’ the artist’s first solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, please join us for a walkthrough with artist Lee Bul and Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation and Director of NEW INC at the New Museum, Salome Asega.
Lee Bul, one of the most influential artists of her generation and a singular voice in contemporary art’s ongoing reckoning with the promises and failures of modernity, brings together major new sculptures and recent bodies of work in ‘The Anatomy of Every Setting Sun.’ The exhibition extends Lee's decades-long examination of humanity's drive to transcend nature through technology and systems of control. The works on view reveal the tensions between utopian aspiration and inevitable collapse, exposing the entangled relationships between technology, history and nature.
Please note that this event will include live translations by Estelle Lee.
The opening reception for ‘Lee Bul. The Anatomy of Every Setting Sun,’ will directly follow at 6 pm.
This event is free, however, reservations are recommended.
Caption view of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 2016. © Lee Bul. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Algirdas Bakas.
About Lee Bul
Known for a pioneering interdisciplinary approach honed over the course of four decades, Lee Bul has created a body of work spanning sculpture, installation, performance, and painting. She first gained international recognition in the 1990s for a provocative, genre-defying art that interrogates themes of utopian ideals, technological transformation, and the fragility of human ambition. For early performances and soft sculptures that challenged societal norms, she often incorporated cyborg imagery to explore posthumanism and gender politics.
Over time, Lee’s practice has expanded to encompass large-scale immersive installations utilizing mirrored surfaces, organic-mechanical hybrids, and architectural structures to engage viewers in a multi-sensory experience of space and perception. Deeply influenced by philosophy, literature, and experimental architecture, her oeuvre examines the intersections of technology, history, and speculative futures. Concepts of freedom and liberation are deeply embedded in Lee’s work, both thematically and formally. Her artistic practice can be understood as an ongoing exploration of constraints—whether political, societal, or artistic—and an imperative to transcend them.
About Salome Asega
Salome Asega is the Deputy Director of Strategy and Innovation and Director of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology. Asega is also an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technologies. Prior to joining NEW INC in 2021, Asega was the inaugural New Media Art Research Fellow for Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, where she supported artists and organizations in the new media arts ecosystem. She is also a cofounder of POWRPLNT, a digital art collaboratory based in Brooklyn that offers free and sliding-scale workshops run by established media artists. Since 2015, Asega has been teaching studio and design methodology courses in the MFA Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design.
