“The work I do always needs to involve others, and that’s mainly because of my views about my own identity. I realised I couldn’t understand who I am without the people around me. I believe that it is only through my relationships with others that I can see myself”
-Nikki S. Lee
The visual artistry of Nikki S. Lee is controversial or as the modern internet would term it, “problematic” and she is unapologetically aware of it. Her photographs make the critical part of your brain uncomfortable, but the curious side of your brain is tickled with her mysterious aesthetics to the point you don’t even realize her pictures are sucking you deeper into their unsettling stories.
Young Seunghui Yi learned about Western cultures largely through media and television. Only after becoming a self-made visual artist, did she manage to express her self-identity and explore her connection to Western communities through her artworks. It is a common tradition for East Asian people to adopt a Western name whilst moving abroad, it goes easier on the white tongue and helps lessen the chances of discrimination. Seunghui did so too— finding inspiration in vogue— she adopted the name ‘Nikki S. Lee’.
Moving to New York for her MFA, Lee also worked as an assistant to the fashion photographer David LaChapelle in her initial days. It was as a student, that Lee started working on a series that would later on make her famous. Her most notable and at times controversial series called Projects lasted from 19997 to 2001. In these photographs, Lee would try and homogenize herself in different communities. Lee would study a particular social or cultural community for weeks, introduce herself to them as an artist, mimic their styles and make-up, and take amateur pictures in which she fits into a certain ethnic or social group of people.
In many cases, Lee would hire and work with professional makeup artists to transform her looks, such as The Seniors Projects(1999) for which she transformed herself into an old version of herself. For The Hip-Hop Project look, Lee admitted in an interview, that she had to visit a tanning salon twice or thrice in order to “blend in”. Over the years, Lee has received a fair amount of criticism such as condoning and performing “Blackface” and “Cultural appropriation” largely due to her works The Hispanic Project and The Hip-Hop Project. “Western culture is very much about the individual, while Eastern culture is more about identity in the context of society. You simply cannot think of yourself out of context,” Lee says in an interview with curator RoseLee Goldberg.
Apart from Projects, Lee has several other works in her portfolio including Parts (2002-2004) wherein the artist photographs herself with different men, it almost looks like a movie still, where she knowingly cuts out the male figures in the pictures. Lee tells R. Goldberg “I realize that my own identity changes depending on whom I’m going out with or who becomes my boyfriend”
In the year 2006, Lee made a mocumentary titled, A.K.A. Nikki S. Lee wherein she played 2 fake versions of herself, delving not just into the documentary as a genre but also into narrative fiction.
Nikki S. Lee Artworks
The photography of Nikki S. Lee showcases stories, and emotions whilst also depicting a sense of identity which in turn instigates questioning of that very identity. Following are some of the artworks by Nikki S. Lee:
1. Projects, 1997-2001
As mentioned before, the Project series has several parts to it, some of which are: The Exotic Dancers Project, for which the photographer had a dieting routine for 3 months along with a personal trainer.
The Lesbian Project, the photographer for all these projects would hang out with a group for 3-4 months and develop a group identity then ask someone to click a picture with them.
The Skateboarders Project for which she had to learn skateboarding to fit in with the group, The Ohio Project wherein she had bleached blonde hair, and fit in with white upper-middle-class American culture. In one of her photos, she is seen with a white American holding a rifle, with the Confederate Flag hanging on the back wall.
2. Parts, 2002-04
In Parts, Lee explores the changing identity in different romantic relationships. The cropping out of the partner shifts the focus to the woman in the picture who is the focal point also enacted by Nikki Lee herself.
3. Scenes, 2014
Scenes was an extension of Parts. It consists of several videos wherein Lee is seen making out with different men in varying settings. It documents the awkwardness and disparate feelings that come with physical intimacy.
4. Two Monks, TBA
Lee is also said to be working on a movie titled Two Monks which showcased homosexual relations between a Korean and an American Monk. The film is said to be a lens that is away from orientalism.
5. Layers, 2008
This 2008 artwork by the artist showcases layers of her portraits drawn by street artists spanning 14 cities. She handed tracing papers to each of the street artists, and these photographs consisted of 3 layers of sketches at a time. It is a comment on the multilayered personality that every human possesses.
References:
- Art News- Twenty Years On, Nikki S. Lee’s Shapeshifting Art Provokes Debates About Cultural Appropriation
- Guggenheim- Nikki S. Lee
- VSF- Nikki S. Lee
- NMWA- Nikki S. Lee
- Wikipedia- Nikki S. Lee
Read Also:
Radical Aesthetics and Political Poetry in the Paintings of Masami Teraoka
Vaishnavi Srivastava is a learning writer, a keen researcher and a literature enthusiast. She is a Sub-editor at Abir Pothi.
