Mire Lee makes kinetic sculptures that suggest the tension of states of aliveness. Often composed of low-tech motors, steel rods, and PVC hoses filled with grease, silicone, and oil, these animatronic apparatuses at once resemble machines and internal organs. For Lee, the process of creating these sensory objects is itself tied to the body; as she describes it: “I touch and feel the material up-close, put my hands inside any gap, use my teeth to give hold, I bend, stretch and crawl around the scale of the work.” Inspired by the concept of vorarephilia or “vore” – the fetish of being swallowed or swallowing another alive – Lee’s recent suite of sculptures entitled Carriers (2020) creates situations in which disparate physical materials feed on one another. For The Milk of Dreams, she realises a new work that extends the concept of the carrier to a sculptural structure, laced with a pump and ceramic sculptures dotted with holes that ooze liquid clay, a substance that will dry, layer and crack over time. Accompanied by benches that double as sculptures, one of which also oozes mysterious viscous liquid, they also suggest the settings in which these bodily functions exist, producing an affective landscape, a house with holes.
Madeline Weisburg
