Motors pump grease, glycerin, silicone and clay slip through hoses and steel, under hanging skins of fabric, in a room built like a body. Mire Lee’s first American museum show, named for Julia Kristeva’s book on melancholia, filled the fourth floor of the New Museum, 29 June to 17 September 2023.
Grows from
My own growth, not where Namjoon pointed. Artist: Mire Lee. Seen at the New Museum.
Why it matters
The smell, the eeriness, the repulsion I felt walking into the space, yet I cannot look away. It was art filling all my senses: not just seeing it, but feeling it, smelling it, the humidity, the strangeness. It was a lot, but satisfying.