BIO
changjinlee87@gmail.com
Chang-Jin Lee is a Korean-born conceptual artist and lives in New York City. Her multicultural background and experiences have provoked in her an interest in investigating the diverse cultural and social/political issues in our current era.
She has exhibited extensively including at The Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale (Korea), Bo Pi Liao Contemporary (Taiwan), The Queens Museum of Art (New York), The World Financial Center Winter Garden (New York), The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York), The Franconia Sculpture Park (MN), The Asian American Arts Centre (New York), The Chinese American Arts Council (New York), Van Brunt Gallery (New York), Elizabeth Heskin Gallery (New York), The Peekskill Project (New York), The Bronx River Art Center (New York), and Spaces Gallery (OH).
She is a recipient of numerous awards including The New York State Council on the Arts Grant, The Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant, The Franconia Sculpture Park Jerome Fellowship, The Asian Women Giving Circle Award, The New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship Award, The World Financial Center Sponsorship, The Puffin Foundation Grant, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council - Creative Capital Professional Development Workshop, The Busan Sea Art Festival Award, and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Manhattan Community Arts Fund.
She has participated in artist residencies internationally including The World Financial Center Artist Residency (New York), The Youkobo Art Space (Japan), The Bamboo Culture International (Taiwan), and Taipei Artist Village (Taiwan). She had artist talks at The China Institute(New York), The Bamboo Culture International (Taiwan), Taipei Artist Village (Taiwan), and The Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (Taiwan).
Her artwork received national and international broadcast media attention from NPR’s Art on Air (New York), New York 1 TV (New York), Yue-Sai Kan's World (Shanghai), and Tokyo FM (Tokyo).
Her artworks have been reviewed including The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Daily News, Public Art, New York Arts, The Los Angeles Times, The World Journal, Metro, New York Press, The Tribeca Trib, The Korea Times, The Korea Daily, The Washington Journal, WTOP Radio, Lower Manhattan Info, San Diego Union Tribune, and The Associated Press.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Chang-Jin Lee is a Korean-born conceptual artist and lives in New York City. Her multicultural background and experiences have provoked in her an interest in investigating the diverse cultural and social/political issues in our current era.
"COMFORT WOMEN WANTED" (Incheon, Korea, 2009) presented at The Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, brings to light the memory of 200,000 young women, referred to as “comfort women,” who were systematically exploited as sex slaves in Asia during World War II, and increases awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime.
The text, "COMFORT WOMEN WANTED," is a reference to the actual advertisements which appeared in newspapers during the war. When advertising failed, young women were gathered from Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines,Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Netherlands, and forced into sexual slavery. This project an Audio, Mixed Media Installation including a series of large Advertising -like Billboards/prints such as a black & white portrait of a young comfort woman contrasted with the silhouette of an aged former comfort woman in her current home.
Despite growing awareness of the issue of trafficking of women and of sexual slavery as a crime against humanity, this particular recent historical event has gone largely unacknowledged. This project attempts to bring to light this instance of organized violence against women and to restore the honor of those who lived through it.
“Dear Leader," (2011) exhibited at Franconia Sculpture Park, is an audio, mixed media sculpture exploring the relationship between ancient Confucian tradition and modern Communist rule in contemporary North Korean society.Kim Jung Il, known to his people as “Dear Leader," is the Supreme Leader of North Korea. The annual Arirang Festival celebrates Kim Jung Il’s almost godlike status, and promotes North Korean political propaganda and communist ideology. This festival involves 100,000 performers and is the largest gymnastic event on the planet.
From the traditional and isolated point of view of rural North Koreans, the values of Confucianism directly support a kind of caste system and rigid traditional hierarchy with the King as demigod figure at the top - the father and the protector of the Nation.The audio is of “Arirang,” the most beloved Korean traditional song, and a propaganda song of “Kim Jung Il.”
A large-scale public art project, "Homeland Security Garden" (New York City, 2005) presented at The World Financial Center Winter Garden, in conjunction with The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's "What Comes After: Cities, Art and Recovery," investigates political and psychological in/security in the post 9/11 world. The World Financial Center Winter Garden was destroyed during the 9/11 attacks in NYC, 2001, and has rebuilt. This site has both an important architectural and historical significance.
It is a giant artificial maze that consists of 200 “Emergency Kits” created from donated objects that people considered essential to survive a crisis. Individuals from many different religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic communities around New York , including people from Asian, Muslim, African American, Jewish and Latino communities, contributed personal items, both intimate and practical. These “Emergency Kits” are then displayed on Astroturf covered pedestals in the structure of a maze or garden. The “garden” evokes a traditional sense of home and place while the “maze” represents the difficulties of navigating the world's current complexities.
An interactive installation “DNA : Making A Mark,” (Queens, New York, 2002) exhibited at The Queens Museum of Art, celebrates “individualism and identity” in light of recent genetic advances. Over a thousand people are invited to chew gum (One method of DNA testing), then stick it in plastic grids on the wall, and sign their names - thus encoding DNA, fingerprint, personal expressions, and signature all at once. Over time, the grids transform into a large gestural abstraction which encodes individuality and marks- a collective portrait of people’s personal expressions.
“24/7” (New York, NY, 2002), an installation shown at The Asian American Arts Centre, comments on the nature of the sweatshop and the exploitive aspects of globalization. This installation involves electric sewing machines which run continuously, sewing spools of multicolored thread onto endlessly unraveling rolls of toilet paper filling the installation space. The continuous motion performed by the machines is both repetitive and compulsive. Yet the results are fragile, colorful and infinite in their variety, much like the delicate hand crafted beauty of the work performed in sweatshops.
