"Is there any sense in which Lee’s work could be considered voyeuristic or even exploitative? Is she commenting on her own identity, the group identity of the people she photographs, or both?"
I did a research on Nikki S. Lee and found that there has been a lot of talking about Lee's work "Projects".
'EVEN after a long face-to-face conversation, it’s hard to say for certain what Nikki S. Lee is really like. That’s partly because this South Korean-born artist has always trafficked in her unnerving talent for assuming different identities.'
(Now in Moving Pictures: The Multitudes of Nikki S. Lee', The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/arts/design/01kino.html (accessed on 22/10/2017)
nikki s. lee projects (accessed on 22/10/2017)
Not all critiques were positive: somebody even said that there are some racist issues in, for instance, "Hip-Hop Project", where she is black, so that she suggests that, in a way, all hip-hop people are black (see Nikki S. Lee’s “Projects”—And the Ongoing Circulation of Blackface, Brownface in “Art” by EUNSONG KIM, http://contemptorary.org/nikki-s-lees-projects-and-the-ongoing-circulation-of-blackface-brownface-in-art/, accessed on 22/10/2017).
Providing that each image of the work Projects is sold for around 3.000 dollars, I could agree with the possibility that Lee's work is exploitative.
I prefer to think that, like young people do, this young (in those years) artist was trying to "find herself", as she said in a video interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI8xpJItPVI, accessed on october 22, 2017), were she states (subtitles in english translated from Korean) "...I realized I couldn't understand who I am without the people around me....".
My understanding is that she concentrates her efforts toward projecting her identity on different contexts and/or situations and then "shoot" the result, so that the viewer can see the different Nikki Lees and Nikki Lee can see the different herself.
This is why I do not find any voyeuristic sense in Lee's work and I do find that she is commenting on her own identity.
In another interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMychWgKedA, accessed on october 22, 2017) she states "... every people have fantasies to be like to live other people's life....", that could relate to a voyeuristic-oriented work; but she was answering to the question "Why do you think people love your work?", so she was referring to the possibility that her work could stimulate a potential voyeuristic sense of the others.
"Would you agree to Morrissey’s request if you were enjoying a day on the beach with your family? If not, why not?"
Oh oh, interesting question for an Italian living in Italy, where the sense of family and sense of belonging are very solid. I would not like that a complete stranger take my or other family member's place.
The more, nobody of my family would think to a masquerade or to what aimed, for instance, Nikki Lee's work: they would see this request as a voyeuristic intrusion in a special, closed community.
Family is a community where everybody is him/herself and nothing else: this is the only truth and no one dare to introduce a masque-lie.
The more, nobody of my family would think to a masquerade or to what aimed, for instance, Nikki Lee's work: they would see this request as a voyeuristic intrusion in a special, closed community.
Family is a community where everybody is him/herself and nothing else: this is the only truth and no one dare to introduce a masque-lie.
Morrissey uses self-portraiture in more of her work, namely Seven and The Failed Realist. Look at these projects online and make some notes in your learning log.
In "The Failed Realist" I believe that, if I had not read the Statement, I would have seen this serie more like a aesthetic exercise than the expression of a five years child painting her mother.
Neither I would see this work as a self-portrait serie.
I found "Seven years" a lot more interesting: the use of both body language and clothes/props, in my opinion give a great power to this serie and make it believable.
The atmosphere is so realistic and "environmental".
