Skip to content
SAIC CLASS OF 2020 GRADUATE WEBSITE
The Future of Our Plans: SAIC Graduate Class of 2020
Graduates
hmb
The Future of Our Plans: SAIC Graduate Class of 2020

Haerim Lee


Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies
hlee110@saic.edu
rimlee.com

I employ the medium of painting, public mural, artist books, and photography to enter into a dialogue with a community in a particular place. My art practice is research oriented-based on ethnographical research, and investigating the history of an architectural site—such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Cabrini Green, the murals from the South Side of Chicago, Gary, Indiana— and using them as a raw material in my studio practice. My practice explores the critique of institutionalized demarcations of power.

Originally from S. Korea from the mono-ethnic country, I am interested in racial dynamics, particularly in the South Side of Chicago where I am currently living in, my work poses a socio-political question— who has the authority to preserve and destroy history? The act of editing, concealment, and obstruction of imagery create a subjective psychological space for history and memory.

Arrow-d

Chicago Mural as Social Infrastructure: The Childhood is Without Prejudice, 2020, Print on archival paper and cutout board, 6 x 22 in., Video documentation by Haerim Lee

Chicago Mural as Social Infrastructure , 2020, Video, 19:50 mins., Created by Haerim Lee

Public murals by African-American artists that depict African-American life in Chicago have a long history. They can be found in many communities and neighborhoods across the city, and have assumed and continue to play a critical role in revealing how these communities see themselves and how they express their identity and history.

Some of the community expressions as revealed through murals clearly stand as a counter-narrative to what the dominant political and social class of Chicago has represented in a segregated city. As such, some of these murals can be seen as a response, even resistance, to suppression and marginalization by some members of these communities, including artists. Through this experience, and by creating my own mural projects with the Archi-Treasures and Legacy Foundation, I started to think about how some South Side murals reflect Eric Klinenberg’s notion of social infrastructure as “[physical space where people can] foster contact, mutual support, and collaboration among friends and neighbors.”(Eric Klinenberg, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. (New York: Broadway Books, 2019), 5.) In this context, certain South Side murals, like The Wall of Respect (1967) and the Major Taylor Trail (2018), reflect a marriage of community organizations and citizens to transform a space into a vibrant part of the community’s shared social space, one that is both of and part of the community. I want to address in my thesis that the process of making murals with the community constitutes as social infrastructure to generate social life. As a result, the research questions addressed in this thesis fall into these categories: public and social space; social construction/deconstruction; public art; and the function of social infrastructure.

Haerim Lee - Chicago Murals as Social Infrastructure: Childhood is Without Prejudice
Chicago Murals as Social Infrastructure: Childhood is Without Prejudice, 2020, Print on archival paper and cutout board, 6 x 22 in., Photo by Haerim Lee
Chicago Murals as Social Infrastructure: The Spirit of Hyde Park, 2020, Print on archival paper and cutout board, 4 x 18 in., Photo by Haerim Lee
Chicago Murals as Social Infrastructure: The Wall of Respect, 2020, Print on archival paper and cutout board, 6 x 8 in., Photo by Haerim Lee

Artist Bio

Haerim Lee = Rim Lee employs the medium of painting to enter into dialogue with a community in a particular place. Her artist practice is research-based, investigating the history of an architectural site—such as the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Cabrini Green, and Gary, Indiana— and using it as a raw material in her studio practice.

Lee currently lives and works in Chicago. In 2017, she graduated from the MFA Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Painting and Drawing Department. She has had solo shows at Gallery Noone (2017) and Kasia Kay Art Project (2012) in Chicago, and Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art (2012) in South Korea. She has participated in group shows including The Body (2010) as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Compassion Show (2017), To Listen. To Speak. To Act. (2017), and the MFA Thesis Show (2017) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She recently was awarded the Downtown Gary Public Art Competition from the Legacy Foundation (2017). She was a resident artist in Hatch Projects Residency at the Chicago Artist Coalition (2018) and a Center Program Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center (2018).

Project Statement

The artist book project, Chicago Murals as Social Infrastructure, investigates how some public murals embody the voices of the community including individual and collective voices that have historically been marginalized. The murals are also an expression of creativity, collective activity, and a sense of belonging in an urban space. These murals assume and have assumed a critical role in revealing aspects of how these communities see themselves and express their identity and history.

The artist books are small scale of zine accordion books. By unfolding the books which contain mural imagery of the text from my writings and texts from the interviews. The artist books function as a visual archive to contains information of the community murals such as The Wall of Respect (1971), as well as contemporary murals such as Major Taylor Trail (2018). The idea of social infrastructural space which alludes library where another social infrastructure that audience can go to access the information.





Arrow-L
Back to group
More graduates
Arrow-R

36 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603
saic.edu
exhibitions-saic@saic.edu

SAIC.EDU/SHOWS
Blick Art Materials

About SAIC
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Learn more.

The views expressed on this website are those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the position of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.


© 2025 School of the Art Institute of Chicago
thin-x
  • Tune In Archive
  • Eyes On Archive
  • Thoughts About the MFA Show
  • Thoughts About the Design Show