Sharing her time between the creative pastures of Seoul, New York and Auckland, inter-media artist Hye Rim Lee has once again landed on our fine shores with a follow on exhibition of her transcendent conception TOKI.

Harnessing Lee’s creative prowess across digital, sculptural and performance platforms, TOKI was conceived back in 2002 as an animated representation personifying the changing roles of women. Focusing particularly on that of Asian women, TOKI started out as a sweet and juvenile character who has since matured into an overtly sexual female intertwined with the rise of technology and contemporary myth-making.

Now featuring in the local exhibition Lucid Dream, Black Rose, Glass Box, TOKI is depicted as a Princess, a Queen and a rose in this display of photography, murals and sculpture. Lee describes this particular body of work as “a dream that I seek to create a paradise between the organic world of my childhood house and garden, and the inorganic cyber world of fantasy and dream”, referring to the world of virtual relationships using sophisticated computer programs.

The result of TOKI’s gradual evolution over the years, prevalent in many of Lee’s exhibitions to date, leads to the inevitable reflection in the consumerism and beauty ideals of Western culture. Renowned for her exploration in the cultural spillover via new technologies and how they influence tradition in the East, Lee’s exhibition gives life to transgender and transcultural characters living in an imaginary world creating real-life resonance.

The exhibition has now finished.