Toki/cyborg
-
Hye Rim Lee
b.1963
Title
Toki/cyborg
Details
| Production Date | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Collection(s) | Collection Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth |
| Accession Number | 2004/2 |
| Media | DVD, holographic projection |
| Measurements | 60 mins |
About
How does Toki make you feel? Named for the Korean word for bunny, Hye Rim Lee’s animated character Toki coos, winks, and slowly bats her lashes. Neither child nor adult, she is both sexualised and cute. Are you confused? Mesmerised? Uneasy? Repulsed? Toki appeals more to feelings than words, anticipating—two decades ago—the reaction-oriented digital worlds we find ourselves occupying today.
Toki escalates the relentless pursuit of ideal beauty that Lee observed in South Korea, where she grew up. Transcending the bounds of cosmetic surgery, Toki takes body manipulation to new extremes in a computer-generated realm where endless enhancement is possible.
Since creating Toki in 2001, Lee has expanded the Toki universe far beyond a single artwork. Today, Toki roams vast technological plains, appearing in many different multimedia and print artworks. Lee too, is unbounded. Since graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 2002, Lee has exhibited her work around the world, and has spent periods living in Tāmaki Makaurau, New York and Seoul. Toki teases fetish and fantasy. But as a mistress of continual reinvention, able to deploy infinite personalities, Toki keeps us on the back foot. We are always the ones reacting to Toki, not the other way around.
— K. Emma Ng, 2023
