Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Hyunji Lee
Lives and works in Phoenix , USA
M
y work is derived from the confusion and distrust about the perceptions of surrounding objects that were engendered by my physical and psychological experiences of displacement . Our perceptions are certainly limited : we see a lot of things everyday , but we sense only part of them , not their entirety . Though a figure definitely exists , we cannot discern its essence , as if we are trapped in a certain mode of viewing . The memories become distorted , and chronological order is broken . I am interested in this distinction and distortion between experience and memory and the way I perceive them in my nomadic situations .
After coming to US , I have become acutely self-conscious , almost disembodied , as if I am observing myself . The foreign environment seems to violently pierce though my body and make me feel vulnerable . As I gradually accepted my dislocation , I was able to reconstruct myself by connecting the current and past simultaneously and navigating space within the sense of displacement . My cultural dislocation becomes evident as my way of seeing changes . This work explores the visual and conceptual interventions in cognition and memory through my personal immigrant experiences and stories , including how we see our surroundings , how the images are stored within our memory , and how they change overtime .
Hyunji Lee is inspired by the distinction between experience and memory within the sense of displacement . Her works explore thoughts and emotions generated between " the experiencing self " and " the remembering self ." In doing so , she links the personal history of her own and the experience of others by creating a new environment , which is the combination of the true , imagined , and imitated spaces . She strives to evoke the interaction between personal memories and the desire to link personal elements into a shared human experience .
Hyunji Lee
Hyunji Lee earned her MFA from Pennsylvania State University and her BFA from Korea University . She has participated in various exhibitions internationally , including the United States , Belgium , and South Korea . She was a recipient of the 31th Joong-Ang Fine Arts Prize at the Joong-Ang Culture Media Co . and the Song- Eun Art Award at the Song-Eun Arts and Cultural Foundation in 2009 and a nominee for the Dedalus Art Grant in 2012 . She was selected to participate in the New York Foundation for the Arts mentoring program for immigrant artists in 2013 and was awarded the NYF A Van Lier Felloweship . In 2014 , she was a recipient of the Contemporary Forum Emerging Artist Grant at the Phoenix Art Museum .