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SAMMY SEUNG-MIN LEE

ARTWORK

Arrived, series explores the experience of migration through an assemblage of broken suitcases wrapped in a leathery paper-skin substrate. I draw from my own memories of immigration from South Korea to the United States, as well the shared experience of diaspora. Arrived reflects on the symbolism of the suitcase, as a marker and remembrance of the journey from one’s home to a new place, often filled with the most essential and precious remnants of the life one is leaving behind.

In this iteration of the ongoing series, I added a vinyl flooring element beneath the suitcases cut 150 sq ft. This dimension mirrors the minimum dwelling size for an “adequate shelter” as stated by Colorado law. The creative process resembles my experience of (un)conforming to a new homeland; it calls for certain self-renewal while summoning and translating the past. As a first-generation immigrant who spent much of her youth in a nomadic state, I use found objects and memories as material to investigate a sense of home.

Bolt down, v. Eat a large amount of food quickly.
synonyms: garbage down, gobble up, shovel in.

Bolt Down: our narrative of food insecurity is a temporary mural project based on food insecurity in Colorado. It works with statistics from the food insecurity issue highlighted by the updated 2021 Colorado Health Access Survey. The project introduces the inequality and injustice issues relating to our access to food.

The artwork has one hundred bolts, and they represent the unit of each group. The colored bolts represent affected numbers out of 100 of the race/ethnicity for all reportable groups. The ten various-sized plates (some with a bolt, empty, or a cut out) represent the pre-existing condition of inequality. The bolt was cast from an actual sample on a bank vault. A tightly fastened bolt suggests a barrier to resources through a failed system. I use paper-skin (felted paper) in many earlier projects to often achieve a community quilt-like symbolism. In this project, I was pleased to evolve this meaning and create more effective dialogue at a large scale through community dining table-cloth-like texture alluding to a community fabric of Colorado. Please see the full detail PDF for additional information.

The 2021 survey and detail were provided by Lindsey Whittington, Policy Analyst at the Colorado Health Institute, and Julia Char Gilbert from Colorado Center on Law and Policy, aleading researcher of 2020's report, generously advised. This project was commissioned by Cecily Cullen, director, and curator of the Center for the Visual Art.

At age 16, I decided to reduce my life into two check-
ins and a carry-on. “The packing, which is the act—the art—of figuring out what not to take. You packed what
you thought was essential, discarded what you thought wasn’t, spent years figuring out how much of that you’d gotten right (from A Ghost Story by Aharon Levy, 2019)”. As anonymous and hard to identify as they are at the arrival from the distance, yet unique and compelling at the personal level, these black suitcases embody shared emo- tions by the immigrants.

Mamabot - Ms.Daegu, 2020, Mamabot - Hindsight, 2020, Ma(ma)bot, 2021

These are all created during the Pandemic while spending plenty of time at home with my 5 yrs old son, Pierce, who loves robots.

Mamabot explores the various self-identified fears and barriers experienced after becoming a mother. Despite
the contemporary lifestyle and technology that seem to assist and empower women to persist in both career and domestic spheres, many obstacles, barriers, and fears still exist. I envisioned a heroic and improved version of myself and created Mamabot to juggle my entire life. She can handle all the to-do list items, meet all the deadlines, feed home-cooked meals to my kids, pick them up from school on time, and ultimately fulfill all societal and self-imposed expectations.

Mamabot - Ms.Daegu, 2020, Mamabot - Hindsight, 2020, Ma(ma)bot, 2021

These are all created during the Pandemic while spending plenty of time at home with my 5 yrs old son, Pierce, who loves robots.

As I investigated my sense of home, one of the strong sentiments was that home is where mom is. So I created Mamabot about my mom, who was born in Daegu, S. Korea. I have never lived or visited Daegu yet. Mamabot-Ms.Daegu has a collaborative element- I got five graphite drawings from Megan Gafford, a local artist who spent her childhood in Daegu.

The COVIDwall story has been well covered by the local media and you can learn more by visiting these links:

Denverite:
https://denverite.com/2020/09/08/a-covid-19-portrait-project-aims-to-keep-those-lost-from-being-forgotten/

9 NEWS:
https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid-walls-art-project/73-cdf91b1b-5f5a-4121-8608-59d055225ef8

303 Magazine:
https://303magazine.com/2020/09/covid-walls-redline-denver/

Lee recently returned from Seoul, S. Korea with Street Art Cart, fabricated from her artist’s residency, all fitting inside her suitcase. As she leaves her studio at RedLine, she was prompted to create a new space – a most basic and economical unit, inspired by street food carts from Asia. This is an artist’s studio, gallery, art fair booth, and it’s on wheels. It is a platform to interact with and discuss an artist’s financial independence, empowerment and sustainability.

The performance by Hernandez and Lee – a movement piece is inspired by a speech given at the UN Earth Summit by José Mujica - former guerrilla fighter, and President of Uruguay. During his speech, he quotes a wisdom from the old thinkers, Epicurus, Seneca and the Aymara: “A poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more, and more.” Hernandez and Lee in the inflated suit, uneasily and awkwardly navigate the domestic and business spaces and negotiate the ideas of home, identities, consumerism, and community.

Photo credit: Ellen Jaskol

Street Art Cart was fabricated from my recent artist’s residency in Seoul, S. Korea, and transported to Denver, all fitting inside a suitcase.
I have always been wanting to create a space – a basic, modular and economical unit, inspired by street food carts from Asia. Street Art Cart will evolve continuously. This space is an artist’s studio, gallery, art fair booth, and it’s on wheels. It is a platform to interact with and discuss an artist’s financial independence, empowerment, and sustainability.

© 2012-24 Studio SML | k, Sammy Seung-min Lee | LEGAL | SUBSCRIBE

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