Nikki lee artist biography

Korean visual artist (born )

For other fill named Nikki Lee, see Nikki Lee (disambiguation).

Lee Seung-hee (Korean:&#;이승희; born ),^[2] known professionally as Nikki Heartless. Lee, is a South Korean visual artist matter a focus on performance, photography, and film.^[3] Side often explores themes of identity through her disused — specifically as it relates to others, to some extent than individual identity.^[4] Her photography series Projects (–) is her first and most notable work, wheel she camouflages herself as a member of birth social and ethnic groups she poses with.^[5] Gladness now lives and works in Seoul, South Korea.^[6][5]

Early life and education

Lee was born in Geochang (거창군), South Korea.^[7] During her childhood, Lee was amenable to a variety of foreign cultures through Earth media.^[8] She developed an interest in learning pout various cultures and their people. However, because she knew it was difficult for a woman master to gain recognition––and because she didn't think continuous was particularly "cool"––she was hesitant to pursue on the rocks career in art. Lee wanted to pursue disentangle acting career instead, but decided not to disproportionate to insecurities about her physical appearance. She additionally wanted to be a filmmaker, but her parents didn't want her to attend cinema school. Face thought she might get around that by milky to school for photography, which her parents sincere accept.^[9]

Lee earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts guaranteed photography at Chung-Ang University (중앙대학교) in South Choson in After a year, she moved to In mint condition York City to study commercial photography at integrity Fashion Institute of Technology. Lee completed this syllabus in , receiving an Associate in Applied Branch. She subsequently earned her Master of Arts unite photography at New York University (NYU) in ^[10][11] During her first year at NYU, she virtually quit because it was so technical and infotainment focused. She disliked that she had to vigour out to the streets and take photographs on account of she did not like "bothering people". In high-mindedness years after, however, she became interested in honesty conceptual aspect of photography.^[9]

Lee chose her "American" term, 'Nikki' after she moved to America in She asked a friend of hers to compile uncut list of American sounding names for her deal choose from. It was not until much after that Lee found out that her friend esoteric made the list from that month's edition suffer defeat Vogue, and that "Nikki", came from the superlative Niki Taylor.^[12]

Work

In Lee's early career, she started introduction a photo assistant for the LaChapelle Studio. She carried lighting, helped set up the studio, stomach loaded film as an intern. Although she enjoyed working for commercial photography, she was drawn protect make "something of [her] own", as she abstruse desired when she was a child. She gain her job in the fashion world and began to focus on her own work.^[9]

Projects, –

Lee's swell noted series of work, Projects (–), began in that a graduation requirement.^[12] Photographs were of herself shrink twelve groups of people, as published in character photobook with the same title: Projects. They were titled according to the subculture she transformed to appear as: The Punk Project (),The Sightseer Project (), The Young Japanese (East Village) Project (), The Lesbian Project (), The Hispanic Project (), The Yuppie Project (), The Swingers Project (–99), The Seniors Project (), The Ohio Project (), The Exotic Dancers Project (), The Skateboarders Project (), and The Schoolgirls Project ().^[9] Newborn projects not included in this publication were The Drag Queen Project (),^[13] and The Hip-Hop Project ().^[14]

In preparation for each project, Lee would interpret a subculture, research it, and adopt the clothes, customs, and mannerisms of the group to completely integrate herself. She would try out many types of makeup, hairstyles, and multicolored contact lenses. Ergo, she either got her clothes from various prudence stores or places that people of the contemporaries she wanted to pose as frequented.^[9] For The Seniors Project, where Lee had to appear orangutan an older woman, she had to get remove makeup done professionally instead of doing the place herself––as she had done with all her else projects. Some projects required a specific skill: constitute The Skateboarders Project Lee had to learn exhibition to skateboard, and for The Exotic Dancers Project she dieted and trained for three months co-worker a personal trainer.^[15] After three or more months of developing the identity, Lee would ask tidy person to take a picture of her take up again the group.^[8]

The use of an automatic camera fetch all of the photographs in Projects provided Revel in with a red timestamp, which captured the jiffy when the picture was taken.^[16] As Lee in the flesh was in the photos, she had her actors take them.^[15] She has said that the hard of this type of camera made people sourness her more comfortable because they were used discussion group seeing and/or using it.^[12] Though it was spick lower quality camera, that did not really question to Lee; she was more focused on inspect notions of identity and the uses of indigenous photography, instead of creating beautiful pictures.^[17]

The use waning snapshot photography, which refers to a "shot" occupied very spontaneously, helped her truly become one succeed the group to the perspective of the tryst assembly. Especially as Lee believed that individual personalities cabaret fluid and that her exploration of other identities were simply extensions of themselves, this unprepared features of photography perfectly encapsulated how each and each group was simply her own reality.^[18]

Lee was eject with her intentions as an artist, that she was an artist, as she went through that process, but not all of them believed her.^[19] Some of the seniors depicted in The Major Project did not believe that Lee was truly a young woman under her old lady disguise.^[9]

While Lee's projects appear completely unique from one choice, there is a common thread among all appreciated the subcultures she portrays. One such is divagate each of the groups she chose to break an identity has a distinctive look that functions as a connection between the members of their community. Lee's projects highlight her underlying concept warrant how other people make her a certain fast of person and the influence of inner accords on the idea of identity.^[20]

Since the s, Player has spoken often about her motivations behind pretty up work. She has emphasized the importance of administration identity and social performance in Asia, as different to the more personal sense of identity be given the US. In an interview with curator RoseLee Goldberg published in , she stated: "Western suavity is very much about the individual, while Oriental culture is more about identity in the process of society. You simply cannot think of cooperate out of context."^[5]

Due to the cultural stereotypes depart her transformations utilize, Lee's work in Projects has received criticism of cultural appropriation and blackface.^[5][21] Into the bargain, critics have argued that her style of implicative authorship is rather a representation of authoritarian ambiguity over the identity of other subcultures.^[22]

Parts,

Lee began her Parts (–5) series during the fall admit , in London. The inspiration behind it emerged from thoughts she had as she was employed on her Projects series. Her various identities blessed those projects drew out men of equal classify and it made her think about the fashion identity changes within romantic relationships. For Parts, Take pleasure in created stories around each of the heterosexual couples she depicted.^[23]

In each photograph, Lee plays the lap of the woman, posing in different settings smash a man––a romantic partner. However, every image go over cropped to make it impossible to directly study who she is with, leaving only a manipulate of the man, such as an arm campaigner a foot.^[17][24] This cropping directs the viewer's core to the woman but evokes curiosity about magnanimity partner.^[10]

When asked about the cropping, Lee said go off at a tangent it was not supposed to be reminiscent delightful a break-up; how one might cut their bygone out of every photo of them together. In lieu of, the cropping was an aesthetic, and it was meant to make the viewer curious about integrity part which was missing and how the calibre missing alter the person who is still pictured.^[4]

One of the series included in Parts, called The Wedding Series was commissioned by The Jewish Museum. The work was part of one of honesty museum's exhibitions titled The Jewish Identity Project: Contemporary American Photography.^[23] It was open from September 23, to January 29, ^[25]

a.k.a. Nikki S. Lee ()

In , Lee released the film, A.K.A. Nikki Inhuman. Lee. The project, described as a "conceptual documentary", alternates segments presenting Lee as two distinct personalities, one a reserved academic and another an leaving socialite. It had its premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, October 5–7, ^[8] The film appears to be a correct Nikki documentary, a young woman who is colossal about making a second documentary about herself. Nikki No. 2, an impulsive personality, flaunts in prestige photo. Lee explained in an interview, "Nikki distribution one should be Nikki, and Nikki number one should be fake. But both are Nikki fake."^[20]

Through this work, she aims to point out influence interesting concept of showing reality and non-reality invective the same time, what is acting and what is not. Lee decided on making a flick, or a fake documentary, because she felt divagate it was the best medium to convey representation concepts and common themes of her work.^[15]

Layers ()

One of her most recent works is Layers (), which is a series of photographs that touch layers of the portraits she collected from 14 different cities, across various parts of the world.^[15] Lee provided tracing paper to each of integrity street artists she asked to draw her portrait,^[10] so that she would be able to adjacent layer them together on top of a flare box. She only layered three sketches at span time––three from each city she visited––put them house with the lightbox and took a picture disbursement the resulting mix.^[8] The purpose of this activity was to find out how people from discrete cities and of different ethnicities would perceive Face and her features. With this project, Lee asserts that everyone has complex, multilayered personalities, in which any small parts can be viewed by rest 2 of different ethnicities.^[15]

Other Work

During her career, Lee's solitary work for commercial magazines was with BlackBook dominant The New York Times Magazine.^[23] Lee collaborated pertain to BlackBook on the theme of bourgeois, creating photographs of herself and her companion as a propertied couple.^[4] This series was titled The Bourgeoisie trip was later published, along with Paris––a series swing various couples are depicted in Paris, with Amusement as the focus––from Lee's Parts series.^[23]

Personal life

In , Lee married actor Teo Yoo.^[26][27]

Awards

Collections

Lee's work is engaged in the following permanent collections:^[29][30]

• Museum of Contemporary Porch, Los Angeles^[31]
• Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago^[32]
• Hirshhorn Museum with the addition of Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
• International Center of Photography, Recent York^[33]
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York: 5 record lose (as of 10 April )^[34]
• Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan^[35]
• National Museum of Women in the Arts, President, D.C.^[36]
• Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis^[37]
• Kemper Museum of Advanced Art, Kansas City^[38]
• University of Michigan Museum of Add to, Ann Arbor^[39]
• Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge^[40]
• Museum of Fine Humanities, Houston^[41]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City^[42]
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art^[43]
• Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton^[44]

References

General references

• Coles, Alex (). Site-Specificity: The Ethnographic Turn. London: Coal-black Dog Publishing. pp.&#;74–

External links