The artist I chose was Nikki S. Lee. Mostly everyone should know a little bit of information about her because Glenn discussed her and also her work during class on February 23rd. Lee was would be considered an identity artist and some of the work we saw that day in class came from her "Projects" during the years of 1997 to 2001.
Nikki S. Lee was born in Kye-Chang, which is a Republic of Korea in the year of 1970 to the parents of Hyun Sook Lee and Minwoo Lee. After graduating from high school, Lee attended Chung-Ang University. In 1993 Nikki Lee graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. She then decided to travel to the United States where she would then earn her MA in photography from New York University in 1998. During the time that Lee was studying for her master's, was when she began her most famous work, Projects.
In an interview that Nikki Lee had with The Creator's Project, they asked her the question "Has your academic education influenced your work?" She responded by saying that she likes to feel free when she works. While at New York University, she felt the atmosphere was not competitive and ambitious like some may think the university may be like. After reading Lee's response, I would assume that most of her work came through her own ideas but also with the help of studying at NYU.
As I mentioned before, Nikki Lee began her most famous pieces of work in 1997 called Projects. Her first consisted of The Punk Project.
Then came The Tourist Project, 1997
The Lesbian Project, 1997
Fast forward to 1999, when Lee did The Seniors Project. This was the first time in all her projects where Lee had to see the help of a makeup artist.
The Schoolgirls Project, 2001
When Lee began to start her portfolio of photographs for what she now calls Projects, she had very little money since she was a student. So there was a very low budget when it came to producing these photos. Nikki Lee made it happen just using her friends and a simple point and shoot camera. The outcome was simply a masterpiece. Some may think that the projects are about the people and the different lifestyles that they live. In Lee's interview with The Creators Project, she was asked "Were the projects more about you or the people?" The projects were no doubt about Lee herself. Her response to the question was "the questions is about me, but to show me with other people in the project becomes every much significant. The identity question of myself requires me to look at the relationships with myself and other people."
After finishing up the Projects, Lee started on her next piece of work entitled Parts, during the years of 2002 to 2005. This part of her work focused on Lee posing in different settings with a male partner. Before, Lee was changing herself to fit into a certain crowd. But now she changes over and over to fit into one single character, guys. When looking at these photos, you might seem a bit confused because the picture is mainly of Lee. If you look closer, the once male character in the photo does not really exist anymore. He is cut out of the picture, like it would be after a breakup. The point Nikki Lee is trying to make that women are being defined through their partners. Since all of Lee's photos deal with identity, she is trying make the photo appear that the women do not need the men in order to identify themselves.
Above are just a few photos that Nikki Lee used in her Parts portfolio. During the time Lee spent working on Parts, she never once owned a digital camera. Just a simple old manual snapshot camera. Lee believed that a digital camera would take too long to start up and take a photo. If something were to happen in an instant, Lee wanted to be able to snap a photo when that action had taken place. Lee's goal was not to make her projects as low budget as possible, it just turned out to be that way. Lee believes that it is not how much money you spend to make a work of art look good. The more important thing is how good or bad the outcome is. Lee mentioned that "i also like projects that involve many layers; at first glance they might seem like very simple projects, but as you dig deeper you discover many stories and layers within." With that being said, it leads into my next important work of art that Lee has made.
Layers, Rome 3
This is just one of the drawings that Nikki Lee had done of herself while traveling through different countries to see how they would interpret her in charcoal drawings. Lee stacked and photographed the images on a light table resulting in a dusty luminosity that transforms pictures into visually rich images. Lee's "Layers" came at a time when she felt her surroundings changed between New York and Seoul. "Where I am, precedes who I am."
In more recent news with Nikki S. Lee, a documentary was released in 2006 about the artist. The documentary displayed Lee as two distinct personalities. The first one being a reserved academic and the second one being an outgoing socialite. You are able to find some of her work in museums such as Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Fransisco, the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Here is a link below that shows an interview with Nikki S. Lee from the people at The Creator's Project. It was one of the first things I saw and listened to when researching Lee. It made me more interested in the type of person that she is and why she chose to just focus on identity.
I find her work very intriguing. Her totally jumping into a whole culture and just going with it. And to capture that dynamic on film is amazing. Awesome job!
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