‘The Objectuals’ By Hyungkoo Lee

Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee’s project ‘The Objectuals’ presents a striking exploration of transformed biology. In this series of C-print portraits, Hyungkoo Lee’s sitters are depicted wearing sculpturally engineered helmets, designed by the artist to incorporate lenses that contort various facial features. The magnified and minimized expressions are caught in a preserved moment of temporary body modification, and the images are difficult to distinguish between retro-styled or futuristic. Developed as an ongoing project from 1995, ‘The Objectuals’ stands to contemplate cultural perceptions of what can be perceived as real in relation to the body, objectifying our desires to visually manipulate the human form.

All images © Hyungkoo Lee