Yesterday, South Korean artist Mire Lee unveiled the ninth annual Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern with her installation, “Open Wound.” On view through March 16, 2025, Lee has transformed the museum’s Turbine Hall into a landscape evocative of the building’s industrial history while simultaneously exploring themes of regeneration and decay.
In this ambitious work, Lee created a seven-meter-long turbine hanging from a crane, referencing Tate Modern’s past function as the Bankside Power Station. Moving through the motorized turbine, dark pink, viscous liquid is pumped through sinuous silicone tubes. These tubes lead to a tray where fabric sculptures made from construction mesh and bent steel rebar soak up the liquid before being carried to drying racks. The sculptures are then hung from the ceiling by metal chains around the turbine.
Born in 1988 in South Korea, Lee is recognized for her grotesque kinetic sculptures, which often incorporate industrial materials such as steel, silicone, and cement. Her work uses motion and texture to comment on the vulnerability of life. The artist is now represented by Tina Kim Gallery in New York, Antenna Space in Shanghai, and Sprüth Magers, which announced its co-representation in May 2024.
Coinciding with Sprüth Magers’s representation announcement, Lee’s work was featured in the gallery’s group exhibition, “territory,” during Berlin Gallery Weekend. Her most recent solo exhibition, “Black Sun,” was held at the New Museum in New York in 2023. Her gruesome sculptural installation, featuring flesh-colored silicone tubes and scaffolding, Endless House: Holes and Drips (2022) was a standout in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2022.
Tate Modern’s commission in the Turbine Hall has become a standout of the museum’s annual programming. The partnership with Hyundai began in 2015 with an installation by artist Abraham Cruzvillegas. Last year, the museum tapped Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, whose three sculptural tapestries decorated the Turbine Hall until April 2024. The partnership’s final commission will take place in 2026.
—Maxwell Rabb
