Four futuristic guardians now loom over Fifth Avenue, gracing the iconic facade of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. This installation, titled Long Tail Halo, is the latest creation by visionary South Korean artist Lee Bul and is part of the annual Genesis Facade Commission, which kicked off in 2020 with work by Wangechi Mutu. It marks Lee Bul’s first U.S. intervention in over twenty years, following her 2001-2002 exhibition at the New Museum.
Lee Bul is one of the most celebrated South Korean contemporary artists, renowned for her distinctive approach that explores the interaction between humans and non-humans, revealing their complex and dangerous interdependencies. Working across various mediums—including performance, sculpture, installation, architecture, printmaking and media art—she has crafted a continually evolving universe that reflects on contemporary innovations and speculates on future possibilities or dystopian scenarios. Her research often bridges technology with a shared human consciousness and the myths and folklore that have shaped our civilization, probing the structural systems that govern everything from individual bodies to expansive architectural and narrative frameworks in cities and utopian societies.
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For the Genesis commission, Lee Bul envisioned humanoid figures that are hybrid creations—cyborgs composed of industrial relics and advanced materials. These figures reflect the increasing integration of humans and machines in our modern existence. They evoke an aura of classical heroes but are fragmented and disjointed, with missing limbs and heads, which further dehumanizes their appearance. This fragmentation introduces a layer of complexity, addressing both the crisis of idols and the escalating violence and war in our global landscape. Their disjointed nature also intriguingly aligns with the aesthetic of deconstruction and collage, reminiscent of Cubism and Futurism. By rejecting the stability of forms and structures, this approach captures the chaos, energy, and movement of contemporary life while challenging established ideas, systems, and representations.
These art historical associations and connections extend further in relation to the museum’s collection, which includes medieval armor and the sculptures of futurist artist Umberto Boccioni. This unique series also ties back to Lee Bul’s early works, when she primarily engaged in performance art. By using the body and creating extensions, the Korean artist addressed the paradoxes of an authoritative traditional Korean society, challenging cultural norms and blending surreal and dystopian imagery with a critical perspective on relevant societal issues. Her themes explored gender, technology, the body, and romantic ideals within the context of Korea’s rapid modernization.
“Lee Bul brings her signature visual language to the facade niches and provokes us with her elegant yet haunting figures,” said Lesley Ma, Ming Chu Hsu and Daniel Xu Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, in a statement. “Long Tail Halo animates the facade and triggers layers of associations that will keep us thinking about the role of sculpture in contemporary culture.” Taking it further, these four guardians can also be read as archetypal figures at a strange confluence of classic and present-day, engaging in a prophetic exploration of human nature’s complexities that go beyond time and space.
Lee Bul’s Long Tail Halo is on view through May 27, 2025. Additionally, two of Lee’s works in the Met’s collection are currently featured in “Lineages: Korean Art at the Met,” an exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the museum’s Arts of Korea gallery, on view through October 20.
