October 11th – October 18th
Last night To coincide with Frieze art fair Lennie Lee who has twice survived open-heart surgery created a ritualistic performance “To the Goddess of surgery”.
In a gallery in Redchurch street as rain poured down out side Lee performance was frightening and disturbing dressed as a manic surgeon with needles galore he screamed in agony and ecstasy as a video of his open heart surgery ran behind.
Then he dashed outside eating a rotting sheeps head.
This was a night no one would forget a highlight of Frieze week for sure.
Lee is primarily counter-culture and a graphic painter, whose bold use of line and colour, invokes dark, comic book illustration. Much of his work focuses on the kind of art a primitive might produce if he were living in contemporary society. To this end, he has painted and collaged his four-floor house in Dalston, covered a car in tar, teeth, vinyl records and matchbox toys and made a number of ritualistic performances. Lee despises the idea that artists are duty bound to specialize in one particular field of activity. He is fascinated by the numerous ways in which contemporary pop culture echoes the rituals and behaviours of older, more primitive societies. This fascination has lead him to accumulate underground art and other fetishes, to make large format photographs of people at dress-up parties, to work with underground art collectives worldwide and to make artwork from everyday or found materials.
His latest show, “Soup-erstitious”, provides a taste of the darker side of Lee’s work.
