proportion control

The female body has long been an object of fetish in the male-dominated worlds of gaming and animation, a fact that artist Hye Rim Lee readily acknowledges in her own Korean animamix and Japanese manga-inspired works. Lee's vocal performance Saturday night at Chelsea's Max Lang Gallery, in conjunction with her first U.S. solo exhibition, "Crystal City," offered an aural component to the show's sensual, occasionally disturbing visuals: digitized prints and 3-D video projections featuring TOKI, a bunny-cum-cyborg with an anatomically incorrect Lara Croft-like physique. "TOKI is a vehicle for fantasy and exploration," Lee explains. "She's designed to fulfill specific desires and fetishes." That the artist slices and dices TOKI on-screen à la "Dr. 90210" suggests a keen awareness of her creation's improbable proportions. "There's an obsession with making this beautiful body. That becomes a woman's obsession as well." Of course, a character as sought-after as TOKI needs a companion or two to navigate the Toys in Babeland-like Crystal City. Enter Dragon YONG, TOKI's newest consort and exhibition co-star. "TOKI's fully developed," Lee says of the character she first envisioned five years ago. "Now she's actually more involved in having friends!"



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