Woman, body, and posthumanism: Lee Bul’s cyborgs and monsters

Abstract

Lee Bul is a female Korean artist, whose works such as ‘monsters’ and ‘female cyborgs’ take unique forms unprecedented in Korean art history that cannot be explained by feminism alone nor defined as subjects of established humanism. Her monsters resemble the female subjects who were undervalued as “Others” in western history, and are also the ‘abject’ as illustrated by Kristeva. They are in other words ‘beings-in-between’ that cannot be named or formed or explained. And her ‘disabled-female cyborgs’ imply the politics of cyborg-representation that reveal women’s ambiguous identity within technology. Lee Bul’s monsters and cyborgs represent all types of hybrids and “Others” that were alienated by humanism and anthropocentrism. They can open up the possibility of gender transcendence that ultimately denies otherness as well. They are on the boundary, thereby allowing reconsideration of human subjects within the posthuman discourse. These provide the theoretical and discourse evidence to call such ideas as posthuman-feminism. © 2017 Asian Center for Women's Studies, Ewha Womans University.