Cyber Strays (Creative Alliance)
Solo Exhibition 5.12-6.17 2023 Baltimore, MD
Curated by Joyce Liang
Concerning our digitally polluted lifestyle in contemporary society, Seung Jun Lee’s Cyber Strays features hovering large-scale graphite drawings and scattered ceramic sculptures that portray a series of metamorphic life forms. The urge for convenience has filled every nook and cranny of human history. From barter to shells, gold to paper bills, and credit cards to bitcoins, this collective pursuit slowly comes to fruition.
In 2020, driven by a storm named COVID-19, the ship of NFT rammed high on the shore of the metaverse. Massive capital flowed into virtual platforms, and people began to claim ownership of this undiscovered land. Henceforward, we become residents of the intersecting area between the virtual and the real. We no longer look at the sun for time or at stars for direction because they exist as numbers and Google Maps on our cell phones. Wandering between two worlds, individuals turn into stray forms that lose “a clear place to inhabit” and a “clear objective in evolving.”
Driven by a fascination with mystical animals in Korean tradition, Lee crafts supernatural creatures as the symbol of “cyber strays.” Representing the digitalization of capitalism in his works, golden toads are common gifts in Korea’s traditional bribery culture. This mystical creature appears only during the full moon, near businesses and houses that will soon receive the good news that is wealth-related. Lee also utilizes industrialized silkworm moths as an analogy to ponder the future evolvement of humans—as they were bred to lose the ability to fly.
-Text by Joyce Liang -Photos by Sara Hinterlong
