ESSAYS Mousse 69
Vorarephilia: Mire Lee
by Alvin Li
I first encountered Korean artist Mire Lee via an Instagram story—a documentation of Andrea, Ophelia, at the endless house (2018). Her works, despite intermediary layers of digital conversion, evoked a convolution of haptic intrigue: the darkened studio space was dimly lit by a screen looping a voyeuristic video of Asian women in transit. Next to it, a mysterious, wet thing—towels, chains, silicone hoses, and steel wire entangled into a giant lump—slowly rotated in a pool of glycerin spread across a steel plinth suspended by a set of tentacular appendages. Suddenly the thing spasmed, making a loud noise as it disentangled itself and splashed gooey liquid onto the floor. Confronted by that creature born of machinery and slime, I felt a mixture of nausea and arousal.
