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Photographer JeeYoung Lee Transforms Her Studio Into Imaginary Dreamscapes

By Jenna Garrett on December 6, 2013

Panic Room

By building the space with my personal, psychological experiences in everyday life, I try to visualize my inner world of which the meanings cannot be value-judged. My work, in essence, records my concerns and process of growing up. It narrates and dramatizes my life stories.—JeeYoung Lee

Artist JeeYoung Lee’s work Stage of Mind is a series of images constructed in her tiny, room-sized studio in Seoul, South Korea. Since 2007, she has been transforming the space into wildly colorful and ephemeral dreamscapes, each scene painstakingly created by hand and without digital manipulation. Handicraft and skill aside, Lee’s work is permeated with complex layers imbued with personal meaning and symbolism. A mixture of childhood hopes and adult fears, Lee navigates her constructed landscapes as a wondering and apprehensive protagonist. Referencing everything from Korean folktales to the Bible, Stage of Mind is a blend of cultures and a psychological exploration of what it means to grow up. The surreal magic and underlying fear creates a world both strange and familiar, transforming a simple room into otherworldly spectacles of imagination.

Lee’s Stage of Mind opens at OPIOM Gallery on February 14th and will remain on view until March 15th, 2014.

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