CYLINDER is pleased to present Eunsil Lee's solo exhibition at No.9 Cork Street, which explores the psychological interplay arising when suppressed desires clash with societal norms.

Employing architectural structures and perspective of Korean paintings, Lee contrasts these desires with conflicts that permeate human existence. Torpor, sorrow, and despair bare their tender flesh “”“in moments of exposed vulnerability”“”—an image akin to an unfinished building. And Lee focuses on these moments to scrutinise dismantled human nerves and unstable psychological state from varied angles with meticulous precision.

Nerves, the conduit for all interactions within Lee's work, transform into sinuous serpents symbolising writhing human desire, then into a wrinkly human brain, evoking a sensation of something crawling in one's head.

In addition, the dark colored Korean paper stretched over the supporting panel and the fuzz on the layers of paper meld with Lee’s subjects and add pulsating tension, echoing the ambivalent human desire to both conceal and reveal.

In the dim pre-dawn hours, at a time suggestive of an impending event, the snakes elusively wriggling low across the ground and weaving between screens, with a series of scenes depicted on their skins prompt observers to question whether they are depictions of a conceivable reality or illusions conjured up by the mind. And as if concealing something, they disappear swiftly into the illusion, stirring the depth of one's sensual imagination.

“Treachery Skin”
2024.10.03 - 2024.10.19
Tue-Sat 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
CYLINDER (FRIEZE No.9 Cork Street)
9 Cork Street, W1S 3LL, London United Kingdom