Alchemy in daily life

Lee’s works are suffused with a simultaneously gloomy and lyrical horror. His miniature human figures condense both hyper-reality and surrealistic illusion, creating odd but beautiful cacophonies. Some are displayed as medical curiosities, squeezed into a syringe or cocooned in a bell jar. Here, the human form is scrutinised and dissected under a cold scientific gaze.
In Extinction (2004) a mythical, transgenic mermaid floats in the trivial surrounding of a domestic fishbowl. The pathos of this piece is indicative of the emotional tension present in much of Lee’s work. There is an ever-present opposition between the mundane and the grotesque, reality is constantly disrupted and challenged by fantastical illusion.