NZArtMonthly

Hye Rim Lee and the Birth of Toki Series
by Natasa Kruscic

December 2003

The three works, 'Mesh', 'Patch' and 'Smooth', recently featured at the Gus Fisher Gallery, as part of the exhibition 'Extra Lives', are a part of the series of nine works titled 'The Birth of Toki' a work by Elam graduate, intermedia artist Hye Rim Lee.

Toki (in Korean meaning a "bunny") is a graphically produced hybrid girl-bunny. Through the videos and digital prints we are introduced to Toki by first seeing her features being constructed in wire frame and the way it leads to the smoothness of the final product. Lee started working on this project in her third year at Elam, and it has been her love since. Toki evolved from a larger body of work, initially being a video of a real person in a costume of a bunny. From there it became a large inflatable doll, which was than reproduced in unlimited smaller versions and is currently a graphic creation featured in videos and intended for a video game.

Hye Rim Lee
Mesh
Computer generated digital print from 'Birth of Toki' Series

She has large eyes, slender waist, long legs and long ears; she is both sexy and cute. Toki's idealized features are a result of number of influences, particularly the images of females in Japanese animated cartoons and comics. Lee is exploring the idea of a perfect woman and the male gaze of a woman. By focusing on the face in 'The Birth of Toki' series Lee reflects the influence of her Korean background, where as she says, people are generally more concerned with ideal facial features and not so much the body; concerns with the perfect body being more an aspect of the Western culture.

Hye Rim Lee
Patch
Computer generated digital print from 'Birth of Toki' Series

In Lee's video work presented in the 2003 Interdigitate, we are given the complete process of the creation of the cyborg Toki. She winks at the viewer and covers her mouth when she laughs. "In Korea women are not supposed to show their teeth", says Lee. Toki is an adolescent, all in white (purity being an important aspect of her perfection), except for her hair, which is pink, colour used by Lee to further add to Toki's sexual side. The nine digital prints representing Toki's face give us the nine stages in the production, but they also seem to reveal different sides of Toki's character. The black on white image in 'Patch' has a mean look, not present in the final stage called 'Smooth'. Lee wanted to show that behind this cuteness there is something much more menacing about this cyborg: "She can be angelic; she can be evil". The most disturbing aspect about Toki is her voice. It is very unexpected and unsuited for her sweet appearance.

Hye Rim Lee
Smooth
Computer generated digital print from 'Birth of Toki' Series

Toki is mass produced, there are hundreds, thousands of them, an entire army of identical girl-bunnies, completely destroying any idea of individuality. They can be reproduced as many times as necessary, but are as easily disposed of as they are being created. The popularity of video games and the way female form is represented in these games was another important influence in Lee's creation of Toki. The super heroes of the video games add another dimension and raise expectations in creations of the image of ideal beings. These heroes have idealized physical features, as well as super-human powers. Currently, Lee is in process of creating the final stage of the work she calls 'The Evolution of Toki' as the cyborg is evolving and growing out of her adolescent age.

Natasa Kruscic interviewed Hye Rim Lee for this review in late November 2003.