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The Page Gallery is delighted to present a solo presentation of Korean artist Yanghee Lee for the 2024 ART SG. The presentation features two video works that highlight the artist's investigation, experimentation, and practice of the forms and characteristics used in the performing arts.
For the past decade, Yanghee Lee has experimented with work that adopts a new perspective on Korean dance. This area has become somewhat entrenched in “tradition”, and she attempts to grasp the pure language and forms of movement rediscovered within it – the basic properties and attitude of Korean dance.
With a strong focus on exploring the structural analysis of traditional dance movements and the phenomenological relationship shaped within the system of contemporary art, Lee experiments with the meaning and possibilities of choreography. She expands its subjects and scope beyond movement to encompass the sustained and unflinching investigation of a new, multidimensional view of performing arts to rethink the notion of temporality and materiality of theatre arts and its potential amplitude in the present.
Even though the artist studied traditional Korean dance, she was also one of the pioneers of independent cultural arts movements in Korea 1990s. She created a dance group called 'The Limbo' and participated in experimental performing arts in a creative, non-traditional theater setting with various interdisciplinary artists. Since Lee moved to New York in 2005, She has worked with Phil Soltanoff, Douglas Dunn, Carlos Armesto (Theatre C), SITI Company Anne Bogart, and an international theater ensemble, which has very diverse backgrounds with dancers, writers, directors, actors, and singers.
Yanghee Lee questions the value, ownership, and enjoyment of performing arts. And proposes and experiments with choreographic methods to make the firm structure and highlight the character, attitude, and all performance elements equally. Through this intensive presentation, the artist proposes new grammar to the materiality, permanence potential, and viewing methods of performances and exhibitions and expects the archiving of individuals' time and experiences to cross the boundaries on a social and cultural basis and penetrate an autonomous "status" at present.
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About Yanghee Lee
Yanghee Lee is a choreographic and multidisciplinary artist based in New York and Seoul. Lee works across divers mediums from live performance, video, text, to installation. Lee is a pioneer of dance who helped define South Korea’s independent cultural arts movement in the 1990’s.
After years of studying traditional Korean dance, Lee began her own choreographic practice by questioning the concept of “choreography” as a limited medium in need of a modern update within traditional dance forms. Through this objective, she founded a dance group called The Limbo, which participated in experimental performing arts in a creative, non-traditional theater setting with various interdisciplinary artists.
Lee received her Bachelor’s Degrees in Korean Traditional Dance (1998) at Ewha Woman’s University and her MA in Dance Education (2007) at New York University. She has performed in the U.S., including at BAM Fisher, New York Live Arts/Dance Theater Workshop, Kitchen, La MaMa, Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, LMCC, Watermill Center, DUMBO Dance Festival, and WestFest Dance Festival etc. She has solo exhibition at Art Sonje Center, d/p, and The Willow as well as participated in group exhibition at Ilmin Museum of Art, Boan Art Space, WESS. Lee also published the book, <dusk> and <Flesh, Stone, Oil> and music <Hail>. She was the Fresh Tracks Artist of New York Live Arts (2011-2012) and Movement Research Artist-in- Residence (2014-2016). Lee was also a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Fellow (2016) and the Arts Council Korea Grant (2011-2012, 2019, 2021), Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). Currently, she is the artistic director of The Limbo Project Performing Arts Lab and CHOREOGRAPHIC, a former member of the Arts Council Korea committees for the Creative Academy(2020), and an associated artist of Theatre C Company.
