LEE WEN

Journey: yellow man: southern exposure

This is a variant modification of a series of work: Journey Of A Yellow Man (first performed in 1992), transmuted to the time, space of experience in the specificity of NRLA Midland.

The work poses questions of post-colonial identity and politics interspersed with global issues and local concerns.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Lee Wen is most popularly associated with his 'yellow man' persona. In his series Journey Of A Yellow Man, Lee appears as the yellow man wandering into different environments, traversing different countries and testing shifting contexts. Lee typically develops his performances in series, (examples of which include Ghost Stories and Neo-Baba) questioning the relatively conservative assumptions about art and attempting to combine Southeast Asian contexts with international currents in contemporary art.

Lee Wen’s early practice was associated with the Artists Village, an alternative art group in Singapore and later forged a more individuated artistic career. Lee has been represented at the Sea Art Festival, Busan Biennale (2004), the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane (1999), the Sexta Bienal de La Habana, (1997), the Kwang Ju Biennial (1995) and the 4th Asian Art Show, Fukuoka (1994).

Born in Singapore, Lee now lives and works extensively on a global circuit and is based between Singapore and Tokyo. Lee’s enthusiasm as an artist goes beyond his solo work and he continues to be active and involved with the new generation in spawning possibilities of collaborations, network and discourse. In 2003 Lee started to organize “The Future of Imagination”, an international performance art meeting which includes forum, documentation and presentation of performance art in Singapore . Since 1999 Lee has also worked with Black Market International, an innovative idea of performance art in a ground-breaking, utopian “group”.

Lee Wen's participation in NRLA Midland 05 has been supported with a grant from the National Arts Council, Singapore.