Jenny Lee – SAIC Graduate Exhibition 2023

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Jenny Lee

Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Film, Video, New Media, and Animation

Graduate Exhibition Two (May)

qs0820joon@gmail.com

Jenny Lee (b. 1995) is a multimedia artist primarily working with experimental performance video and video installation, based in the US and Korea. She received a BFA in Fine Arts from University of California, Los Angeles in 2018 and is currently a 2023 MFA candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the FVNMA department. Lee’s initial background in painting discussed issues regarding human dignity with special attention to the victims and traumas over the social issue of sexism and inequality in Korea. Still dealing with these issues, Lee now applies them along with broader concepts of opposite ideas such as fake and real, success and failure, and technology and humans. Lee’s current practice also studies the use of body, space, time, the feeling of alienized or familiarity, absence or communication, as well as questions about trust between people.

Jenny Lee - Mother-Daughter Cooking

Mother-Daughter Cooking, 2023, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, Screen Shot of the video, 9:39 min

Jenny Lee - Unveiling the Unsaid

Unveiling the Unsaid, 2023 – work in progress, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, Screen Shot of the video, 5:41 min

Jenny Lee - Invisible Roots

Invisible Roots, 2022, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, Screen Shot of the video, 14:05 min

The performance series with my mother explores the essence of our relationship and attempts to reinterpret it. I feel the possibility of transforming the meaning of the relationship by giving rise to a new kind of interaction and blur the big absence between us. The performances created magical moments where only pure contact and mutual trust existed, making moments feel timeless, as though time and gravity had ceased to exist. I am trying to share these moments through videos and video installations. This series allowed me to discover new meanings in our relationship and explore the relationship between space, time, and the body. My mother is sensitive to the environment and can be shaken, but she constantly overcomes and adapts to any situation. Our relationship is similar to plants conversing with invisible roots in the soil. Even during long periods of physical absence, we share a different time, communicate through silence, and maintain a close connection.

Jenny Lee - D-v3x Failure Case Report

D-v3x Failure Case Report, 2021 – work in progress, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, Screen Shot of the video, 5:19 min

https://vimeo.com/656503148, I intend to explore and express the definition of success and failure, the inevitable relationship between technology and humans, and the boundaries that cross linguistic and physical limitations. Humanity will keep failing throughout existence; therefore, failing is innately human. These failures establish technology, manifest art, and give rise to communication. The key to surviving is not perfection but adaptation, developing through failures, and using the vast data acquired through failing as a foundation. I ask what the human definitions of success and failure are, and intend to look back at the inevitable connection between humanity and technology.

Jenny Lee - Collapse

Collapse, 2021, Video/Performance, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, Screen Shot of the video, 5:14 min

https://vimeo.com/656486695, As media develops, the boundary between fake and real becomes less distinct. There is an ironic relationship between the violent images provided by increasingly realistic media and the feeling of the unfamiliarity of actual images in news reports. Although these are all provided through a common medium called “the media,” the degree of impact varies. In this evolving media world, I question the boundaries between the real and the fake, the real and the virtual, through familiar reality backgrounds, cloth, and figurative synthetic images called chroma-key.

Mother-Daughter Cooking, 2023 – work in progress, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, 9:39 min

This artwork experimentally visualizes the scene of my mother and me cooking in the kitchen with little conversation, capturing in this encounter through long take documentary-style footage. Through a third-person perspective, it observes the interaction between our bodies and the environment as it traces the flow of time within our living space. By doing so, it reinterprets the often-overlooked relationships between time, body, and space in our daily experience with an experimental perspective, posing questions about our perception and understanding. Such experimental visualization can provide new perspectives on what we commonly experience and expand our observational and empathetic abilities. In essence, this artwork is a daring attempt to challenge our perception and understanding beyond a mere depiction of a simple cooking scene in the kitchen.

Unveiling the Unsaid, 2023 – work in progress, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, 5:41 min

This ongoing work delves into the experiential and emotional frontiers of interpersonal relationships, exploring the nature of dialogue between individuals and the affective boundaries of communication. By experimentally capturing subtle emotions, movements, and delicate sounds through the video medium, the work presents a visual representation of enigmatic gazes and indiscernible emotions that fill a nearly silent exchange between my mother and me. Going beyond my experiences as an artist, the work poses fundamental questions about how we as people understand and communicate with each other. Thus, this piece transcends being a mere video record and offers a profound and meaningful experience, creating a space for dialogue and fostering a deeper connection between the artist and her audience.

Invisible Roots, 2022, Single Channel, Stereo Sound, 14:05 min