Chinese surrealist explores the animal within

Lee photographed people's faces and highlighted certain features to make them resemble the 12 horoscope animals according to Chinese mythology. The result was his "Manimals" series, which proved an immediate success on the international art scene.

His later projects pushed the idea even further. "Origin" is a series of pictures tracking the unfolding of human evolution from fish to amphibians to apes and finally homo erectus.

Lee was born in Chongqing and moved to Taiwan when he was a young boy. He was raised as a Catholic, but when he went to the United States to study digital art he later decided religion was "created because of human weakness".

"The earth has existed for 5 million years, but human civilization has only been around for 10,000 years. In this context, we may say that only yesterday human beings were animals in the history of the planet," he said. "The animal still hides deep inside people's hearts, and it pops up from time to time."

Genetic science has also helped blur the line between animals and people. Pigs share 94 percent of man's basic DNA, a discovery that has compelled scientists to try and cultivate human organs in pigs for human transplants.

"Maybe one day there will be a colony of pigs with human organs, and maybe even human thoughts," said Lee, explaining the idea behind his "Harvest" series.

"In the early years I put lots of emphasis on the technology, trying hard to make all the details perfect, but now I think the ideas are more important. I find it more satisfactory to work on my new ideas," he said about his latest series of works, "Dreams". This comprises digital images and sculpture installations of fishes with human physiognomies.

Until May 31, 11 am-6 pm (Tuesday to Sunday)

7 Tangram Art Center

2F, Building 17, 50 Moganshan Road

莫干山路50号，17号楼2楼，七巧板艺术中心

Tel: 6299-9868

Zhang Kun