Creating Identities: Nikki Lee’s Projects

We are back with an article! Have you heard of Niki Lee? She is an photographer and artist. Her motivation is being curious who she is, which means her desire to find her identity. Everybody wants to know his/her own identity because knowing myself is the key to move forward. Let us what you think through the comment!

Creating Identities: Nikki Lee’s Projects

Min Ji Kim
Sogang University

             What constitutes our identity? Is it created internally, or is it a result of our social perceptions? Talks on identities and how they are created have been numerous, and these issues also stand at the center of many other controversies. Especially in America where many different ethnic groups intermingle to harmonize into living together, defining one’s identity has become even more important. Regarding this, Nikki Lee, a Korean photographer and film maker active in New York City, has put together a series of projects that are named Projects that shows how such identities are created through people’s look.

 

             As a Korean with a strong Asian look, Nikki Lee fits perfectly into the category of the stereotypical Asian. However in Projects where Nikki Lee dresses up and puts on make-up to look like other social or ethnic groups, she blends in perfectly without any doubt on her original appearance. She can practically turn into anyone.

             For instance, Lee dresses herself in a way that Hispanics do in The Hispanic Project. Her resemblance to the Hispanic group of people is very high that it is hard to recognize her in this picture. Another example, The Skateboarder’s Project also shows her blending in naturally with other people.

            Through her projects, Lee shows how identity, which is a mechanism that is used to define you, can change. It is not absolute but subjective. Furthermore, she quotes a thought from Buddhism that “I can be someone else and that someone else can be me as well,” in order to explain her rationale behind the Projects, that she wanted to show how the views of others are important in constructing one’s identity in life.

             Nikki Lee’s photographs are just one interesting example of how identity is defined, even though another viewpoint might claim her idea of identity to be superficial and lacking depth as her notion of identity revolves around the surfaces. Debates are still going on regarding different constitutes of identity, and Lee’s Project stands firm in proving one side of the argument.

Check out the site if you are interested in knowing more about Nikki Lee and her projects:
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/show/nikki-s-lee