Works
Sun Diorama 2
Sun Diorama serves as both the title of Yuri Lee’s solo exhibition and its central installation. The work investigates systems of circulation, with particular attention to the dynamics of energy flow. By paralleling the imperceptible exchanges of energy in natural ecologies with the relentless operations of the assembly line, the installation foregrounds the entanglement of labor, technology, and dependency. Plastic bag robots, sustained by systemic structures, emerge as both agents and symbols within this continuous flux.
Learn MoreAirSynth
AirSynth is a large-scale kinetic installation that invites audience participation through a web-based interface. By activating the system, viewers trigger the breathing of a soft structure composed of multiple air pockets. The fragile and unpredictable movements of this inflatable architecture generate shifting forms, transmitting reactions outward across its layers. In doing so, the work engages with the intangible rhythms of fluids—air, smoke, and particles—revealing their ephemeral presence through material transformation.
Learn MoreStoneComp
The term StoneComp is coined by the artist to imagine a primordial computer built from stone. Situated on the Moon, the work envisions a system that is self-sustaining within cycles of natural substances, while simultaneously interconnecting earthly matter with intricate mechanics through cellular and tissue-like structures. In this convergence, StoneComp speculates on the continuity between organic processes and technological logics.
Learn MoreSun Diorama 1
Sun Diorama 1 is an earlier iteration of the Sun Diorama project, presented as a two-channel video installation. The work depicts energy flows and serial reactions unfolding through light, plants, minerals, industrial infrastructures, and an artificial sun. The left channel reworks 16mm film footage shot by the artist in 2018, augmented with 3D elements, while the right channel engages audiences through interactive text-based games that advance the narrative.
Learn MoreFiction 3.0
Fiction 3.0 investigates new modalities of storytelling and narrative construction through the combined logics of YouTube algorithms and artificial intelligence. Drawing on the artist’s personal mobile archives spanning two decades, alongside writings produced over the past thirty years, a concealed AI algorithm generates an unceasing sequence of video footage and a conversational exchange between human and machine. In doing so, the work reflects on authorship, randomness, and the entanglement of personal memory with machinic narration.
Learn MoreStoryStack
StoryStack is an augmented reality installation that collects and redistributes fragments of digital debris—images without origin, disposable social media feeds, and generic game assets. Within its constructed environment, neither real features nor virtual objects find stability; instead, they accumulate into a synthetically fabricated closet. Here, the remnants of secret desire, fleeting pleasure, and indispensable commodities can only settle within a space marked by anonymity and placelessness.
Learn MoreFungus Robot
Fungus Robot draws on research into the ecology of mycelium, employing origami and kirigami as engineering methods to reinterpret the hidden intelligence of microorganisms and the data-streaming systems of their colonies. Through shape-shifting forms, the robots’ architectures are designed to function with minimal energy input, suggesting models of artificial organisms that embody alternative forms of intelligence, parallel to those found in natural systems.
Learn MoreFungal Fiction
Fungal Fiction investigates how narrative can emerge and proliferate in ways analogous to fungal growth. By juxtaposing processes of story-making with the life cycles of plants and animals, the work disrupts conventional narrative trajectories, allowing stories to entangle, diverge, and deviate from linear forms. Through audience play and intervention, countless variations of the story unfold, dissolving the notion of a fixed script and instead presenting narrative as a process of continual, organic creation.
Learn MoreElectric Forest
Electric Forest is both the title of Yuri Lee’s solo exhibition and the central 3D animation presented within it. The work addresses micro-energy generation with a particular focus on Plant-Microbial Fuel Cells (PMFCs). While considering their potential as alternative energy sources, the project also questions the distinctions between human systems of energy recycling and nature’s processes of energy reproduction, reimagining humanity’s position within the intertwined realms of nature and culture.
Learn MoreEquator System
Equator System was composed specifically for the large-scale media wall at the Asia Culture Center. The two-channel video traverses the spectrum between visible and invisible light, engaging with ultraviolet and infrared frequencies that lie beyond human perception. While the “true” colors of the physical world remain concealed within these extended ranges, the work meditates on the limits of vision and belief. Using 16mm film and infrared photography, the process of developing and printing is meticulously documented, revealing moments in which the act of capturing the world diverges from what the human eye perceives as reality.
Learn MorePractice on RGB
Practice on RGB is a performance composed of layered media, including video, animation, found footage, and the artist’s own snapshots collected across different times and places. The work traces a geographical point of reference—the North Pole, where Nansen’s 1893 expedition ultimately failed—yet emphasizes its perpetual inaccessibility due to the drifting flow of the ocean. This impossibility is paralleled with the elusive precision of digital color: the hex codes that designate RGB values can never be fully grasped within the “digital ocean.” The performance shifts restlessly from color to color, scene to scene, arriving finally at an empty screen.
Learn MoreThe Phantom of Matter
The Phantom of Matter is a live performance combining sound and multi-channel projection. The work assembles fragmented landscapes of everyday life alongside the artist’s uncanny performances staged in diverse settings—on a beach, in the studio, and at a piano. Streets, monuments, chicken cages, and found footage are collaged and transformed through video synthesizers, generating illusory layers and shifting visual densities. The result is a performance that hovers between the real and the spectral, probing the thresholds of material presence.
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