Flatfile » SUNGJAE LEE »

Sungjae Lee

SUNGJAE LEE is a multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago and Seoul, South Korea. He makes performance, installation, text, and video that probes the relationship between societal fringes and normativity in order to increase the visibility of marginalized groups. He has presented his works globally in Korea, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. LEE holds two master’s degrees: an MFA in Sculpture from Seoul Nation University and an MFA in Performance Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently living and working in Chicago, IL as a curatorial assistant of the performance art gallery DFBRL8R.

My Own Private Iowa, 2018-2019, performance with installation,
performance: about 20min
installation: 16 milk crates, 2 floor lamps, a red carpet, analog television, printed media (old family photos, brochures from Iowa and Korea, letters, and the bible), clay remains from previous performances, and t-shirts, size variable (installed size on the video: H 7' x W 16'91" x D 27'66")

My Own Private Iowa, a performance piece with an installed stage, speculates about the definition of home, the tracing back of one’s memory, and the construction of identity. Based on my research in Iowa City, a place where my family lived in the 90s, I build a shrine and activate it along with the transcultural narratives of Asian-Americans including myself.