ABOUT
JeeYeun Lee is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. Through performance, objects, and socially engaged art, her work explores dynamics of connection, power, violence and resistance. Her work has been shown in Chicago, Detroit, Santa Fe, Ohio, Missouri, and France. She has worked with social justice and community-based organizations for over thirty years in immigrant rights, economic justice, LGBTQ issues, and domestic violence. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My creative practice combines my background as a fiber artist, my work as an activist, and my personal experiences of migration across the US, Europe, and Asia. Lately, I have been trying to understand my position as an immigrant from a formerly colonized country, here now because of U.S. imperialism, used in the project of settler colonialism to occupy indigenous land. My goal is to investigate how this position and my work can move towards decolonization, both metaphorical and literal.
Currently, I stage walking performances along traditional Indigenous routes in urban spaces, anchored by extensive research on the specific histories of colonization and racism in each place. My process begins with combing through archives, published work, and interviews. What emerges through research inspires the content and form of the work. In the past four years, I have completed durational walking performances in Detroit, Santa Fe, and Chicago, accompanied by exhibitions, publications, and lectures. During the walks, I wear a traditional Korean dress made from denim to mark my position as a Korean female, an immigrant, an “American,” and a settler.
Bucking the dictates of art under capitalism, I pursue art and creativity as a project of liberation for all.