MIRE LEE
Mire Lee’s works can only be regarded as anti-aesthetic. There is horror and gore, but also beauty, as well as technical skill—both in their design and execution. Untitled (My Pittsburgh Sculpture) (2022) resembles organs entangled in machinery. As the machinery turns, the organs spill out, conveying a sense of something visceral and painful happening at once.
Pain is a theme explored in many of Lee’s sculptures, as well as vorarephilia: the erotic desire to consume or be consumed by another person or creature. Lee has said she sees it as “a universal metaphor rooted in the desire to unite with another being.” Through this work, she considers how we may come to understand or make something of the violence, toxicity, and pain we are confronted with. Lee is also currently featured in the Venice Biennale, the Busan Biennale, and a solo show at Tina Kim Gallery.
Through “is it morning for you yet?” the curatorial team acknowledges very complex histories within the Carnegie Museum, the city of Pittsburgh, and the world at large. “It’s palpable,” Mohebbi offered, “and maybe this exhibition can contribute to a larger conversation and expansion of how institutions can serve this position or follow it better.” With so many diverse perspectives and lived experiences represented in the show, he asks that we remember “that at any given moment, we can’t take for granted that we are all going through the same emotions, the same thoughts.”
—Tara Fay Coleman
