Museum of Contemporary Photography - 1 views
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From schoolgirl to senior citizen, punk to yuppie, rural white American to urban Hispanic, Lee’s personas traverse age, lifestyle, and culture. Part sociologist and part performance artist, Lee infiltrates these groups so convincingly that in individual photographs it is difficult to distinguish her from the crowd
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John Fenn on 02 May 12obvious connection to Cindy Sherman's work, but with the added (and quite rich) element of immersion in the "real" social world...
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Lee’s projects propose questions regarding identity and social behavior. Do we choose our social groups consciously? How are we identified by other people? Is it possible for us to move between cultures? Lee believes that “essentially life itself is a performance. When we change our clothes to alter our appearance, the real act is the transformation of our way of expression—the outward expression of our psyche.”
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I'm interested in how Nikki S Lee crosses boundaries of her identity and how she can so easily move from one to the next. This is more easy for most people to do online where you don't have to physically become someone new. -
It also sort of shows just how eager society is to classify and group others for their own convenience. Of course, Lee must be an amazing chameleon of an actress and participant/observant, but I am still surprised at how easily her groups will take to accepting what is essentially a deception or farce.