On Every New Shadow- Exhibition

On Every New Shadow was a sculptural installation shown at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris from 2007-08. The sculptures included in the installation were suspended in mid-air or anchored to the floor, creating an environment that engages the surrounding architecture. Lee Bul's complex installation explores the disintegration of utopian aspirations that haunt the imagination in a dark space of glittering ruins.

Sternbau No. 4, Lee Bul (2007)                                  Sternbau No. 5, Lee Bul (2007)

Some of Bul's work in this installation was inspired and influenced by Bruno Taut, a German architect and urban planner. Taut's ideas of buildings being giant mountains of glittering glass ornamentation resonate with Bul's ideas of an ideal society or fantasy landscape. Her work also reflects the incompleteness of utopian architecture theories. Bul says these pieces "evoke the spirit of Bruno Taut". Bul's After Bruno Taut (Beware the sweetness of things) resembles Taut's The Crystal Mountain.

After Bruno Taut (Beware the sweetness of things), Lee Bul (2007)

Bul's construction of utopian urban landscape models derive from modernist architectural designs and figments of her imagination. The structures represent utopian dreams through dystopian hyper-realities, seeking the perfect society but only pointing to its demise. Bul's landscapes originated from her first series starting in 2005, Mon grand recit. The architectural elements in her work function as allegories for the state of society and humankind's desire for perfection.

Aubade, Lee Bul (2007)

"On Every New Shadow" Installation view, Fondation Cartier

The lake of black ink in Bul's Heaven and Earth (pictured above) represents Baekdu Mountian, the traditional birthplace of the Korean people on the border of China and North Korea. Baekdu Mountain has one of the world's highest crater lakes, Heaven Lake, and has been a source of territorial disputes for centuries.

Heaven and Earth (detail), Lee Bul (2007)

Overall, Bul's highly conceptual models shown in On Every New Shadow use art to approach a new understanding of the past century.