Artist research for Identity

My artist was Nikki S. Lee. We heard a little on her in class, as being the person who changed her appearance and lived with people that fit that "costume" and acted like them and learned from them for long periods of time, actually becoming one of them.

This picture is from when Nikki Lee took the approach of fitting into a group of skaters for a while. 

To get a little more background information on her, Lee is a korean artist and filmmaker who lives in New York City. She moved to New York from Korea when she was about 24. When she got here, she was introduced to a wide variety of cultures when being welcomed. Nikki went to collage and received an A.A. in fashion as well as a B.A. in fine arts. She used those degrees to master her "projects" in an exceptional fashion, as she needs it to dress, walk, and talk like the groups of people she conforms with.

This is from her "Hispanic Project", when she spent some time in an urban area of hispanics.

On a site I was looking up, it brought a couple good points; it asked a couple questions which were:
     Do we choose our social groups consciously?
     How are we identified by other people?
     Is it possible for us to move between cultures?
Were those thoughts of hers when she started each project? The website also quotes her saying "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."

The Yuppie Project, where she took her place in a high-end community.

Nikki S. Lee has gone into her projects with just a eye for fashion and a camera, developed her movements and actions into that of those around her, and come out showing we make ourselves what we want.


Here are some links for those who want to look up a little more on Nikki S. Lee. They have good pictures of her projects, some information on her, and other things:


http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/lee_nikki_s.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_S._Lee
http://www.artnet.com/artists/nikki+s.-lee/biography-links
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/arts/design/01kino.html