BEING ALONE TOGETHER 2019
Throwback to 2018, while I was about to start a new series, I took some time away to produce this mini series "Being Alone Together", as a personal letter to Hong Kong when political unrest strike fear in my homeland. The exhibition was set up in a pop-up space in 2019, upstair of a yoga studio in Central, where provided an intimate atmosphere for conversations and quiet contemplation surrounded by my drawings, objects and plants installations.
In time alone, there are moments I perceive a strong connection, soul recognition and resonance to nature and other human beings. Solitude, which is different from loneliness, emerged as a strikingly visual entity as an aesthetic emotion.
In my drawings and photos, I explored with charcoal and ink, clay and plaster, along with poetry to create a ‘spiritual landscape’ expressing a state of mind finding a harmonious place elevated from discordant reality.
Poetry prints titled POEMS ON SOLITUDE FROM 3 CITIES written in London, New York and Stockholm between 2018 - 19 was also launched alongside.
This exhibition is independently organised and self-funded.
THE AWAKENING 2017
Having been around bison before, I experience the simultaneous qualities in bison of power and vulnerability, portraying fragility, calmness, tenderness and peace – a raw and powerful energy. The collection expresses the inner turmoil of the bison on the ink drawings, along with the intimate poetry on conversation with myself. From the bison’s bold physicality, developing to abstract mindscapes, the journey represents a search in emptiness and seeks for spiritual awakening. Awakening is the courage to face, embrace and release the truth of a heart and its real needs.
Seeing a bison in person is both therapeutic and blissful experience.. A deep feeling of sorrow and compassion came over me when I recognised our souls’ reflection in these beautiful beasts.. But I also felt a warm sensation grow in my heart.
Over 40 pieces of ink and bitumen drawings, photographs and new collection of poetry in English titled In Between.
UNDER PRESSURE 2015
This series is the continuation of her research-based art practice, this time exploring the theme of ‘pressure’. During a year of research, the artist was profoundly touched by her readings about people suffering from different degrees of pressure, from body anomalies to depression or mental disorders. They inspired her to create this collection of more than ninety artworks.
For Claire Lee, where pressure takes place, life manifests a great survival desire and energy, which she has represented in simply composed yet intense artworks. They express the tension, inherent to all human, animal and natural forms, between harmony and violence. The exhibition is an invitation to discover in insignificant forms the most powerful manifestations of beauty itself.
With Under Pressure, Claire Lee does not intend to shock, preferring instead to subtly push uneasy topics to the viewer’s eyes, opening the possibility to reflect on them. In the photographs, the artist stages her own body or oversized objects she previously squeezed, tied or sliced. They contrast with the drawings, in which she often leaves large blank areas, as an emptiness to be filled with the viewer’s own perception and emotions.
“I still remember visits to the Space Museum when I was little. I enjoyed lying down in darkness feeling pressured by the planets pushing in or pulling away from one another. This “planetary pressure” appears like a white giant sphere over the sky. I have no idea why this pressure, suffocating as it is, enchants me at the same time. “
Many autistic children seek pressure to cope with the pressure of living in this world. They search out the tiniest spaces through which to squeeze themselves in order to calm their body, to relax their heightened senses. Also, the grotesque and neurotic gestures in epileptic seizure reminded her of organic forms in our nature. There is a deeply touching energy reflected from these uncomfortable shapes formed by the intense muscles.
Animals and nature demonstrate violence and harmony as well as beauty and horror. In Claire’s ink drawings, the form and posture of plants, fruits and vegetables in deformation represents life’s fragility and strength to survive. Pain is colossal and its pressure could appear in a weightless but delicate form. The most insignificant forms could be the most powerful manifestation of beauty itself.
Inspired by the human body suffering under various forms of pressure, Under Pressure explores beauty in body forms and the spirituality. Where pressure is taking place, life manifests a great survival desire and energy.
Over 90 pieces of ink and pencil drawings, photographs and new collection of poetry in English titled FIST.
TOFU & VIOLENCE 2013
Tofu – so gentle, liberal and easy, with an unsettling boldness and sincerity hidden within. When faced with unfairness or violence, it retains its serenity, because it is always at ease, understanding and possesses acumen.
This series of paintings is inspired by tofu, a metaphor of a gentle and unspoken power against violence. I would like to explore how our souls might express a spiritual strength and quality in times of pain. The two extremes are brought to confront each other, probing the viewers to consider the relation of the two. Neither taking it in nor fighting violence with violence is the way out.
In this project, I gave a brick of tofu to a group of participants of different backgrounds, asked them to use their bare hands or any body parts to hold it, feel it, and exist with it. Photographs were taken as the skin holding it. At the end of the session, they were asked to write about their relationship with tofu.
The tofu reveals the most basic instinct in us all – to protect, to destroy or to manipulate. To be able to contact with your inner self again is a beautiful nature of gentleness.
Tasting tofu leads us to a moment of peace and tranquility. From the slower pace and the tiniest facets of life, we find sensitivity and thus comfort. This is the gentleness you can give to yourself. I hope we return to our origins: upkeep our manners, broaden our minds and be respectful. Gentleness and nonviolence may not further the developments of this world nor solves all challenges we are faced with, but I believe it is very important to uphold and elevate our life and interpersonal relationships.
Proceeds from sales of the set of 3 books on the project’s documentation Tofu & Violence was donated to support service for sexual violence survivors.
SACRIFICE 2012
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as a religious act. The sacrifice reflects the inner turmoil of an artist’s mind, which is searching for spiritual redemption through solitude in a conflicting modern world. Artist Claire Lee is interested in the exploration of animal and psychological drama: mediation between nature, emotions and salvation. Lee attempts to articulate a journey of spiritual subversion from one level of reality to another. The exhibition contains a series of new mixed media paintings and poetry of artist meditation on fragility and strength, through manipulating broken glass and its shadow on the painting, it generates a calm intensity which leads viewers to a strange but intimate spiritual experience.
The series contains a series of paintings of meditation on spiritual sacrifice through symbols of animals and was exhibited in a former slaughterhouse(a cattle depot) with exhibition in a gallery to follow.
English and Chinese poetry book RITUAL was launched in the exhibition with poetry reading event.
CALM BEFORE THE STORM 2011
Andrei Tarkovsky is one of my favourite directors of all time. I am connected to his unique powerful visual tapestry and imagery to form and aesthetics.
In this series, by employing each of the objects I picked from the seashores in Hong Kong, nature is a ‘comfort zone,’ as a respite for the barren landscape I awaken to. Each of the natural elements (stones, broken objects, leaves...) has their own sustained rhythm. I want to use these natural rhythms and cross over with the animal illustrations to express my own, that of my characters and psychoanalytical paradox of a calm and chaotic mind.
I appreciated the damaged details and textures of the abandoned, broken or old objects. Strength and power always manifest itself greatly through silence and imperfection. In the same time there is a storm, a revolution within, to provoke beauty and strength through the fragility.
Poetry in English were displayed with the artworks.
Solo exhibition at Fringe Club in Hong King.
Categorised as a Grade I historic building, the building where Fringe Club now situated was used to be an old Dairy Farm cold storage depot built in 1892.
THE WEIGHT OF A FEATHER 2009
I use different tones of white to give an initial impression of lightness, calmness, and a sense of detachment. However, soon after the rich textures and layers, there is a splash of intensity.
It is like the lines on an old man's face which speak the stories of his life in silence. This silence, which speaks louder than words, shows the beauty of all imperfection and becomes the varying tones of white in my works.
My poems act like the layers of my paintings, representing passion through another kind of silence. Layering does not stem from an attempt to blend media; rather, it is simply the reflection of my creative process.
I am always fascinated by the tensions and conflicts in humanity and I think beauty always lies between textures and layers in things. In the process of long searching, things and thoughts transform in every minutes. Art, to me, is a process of finding simplicity through understanding the complexity in our lives.
Poetry reading event in the exhibition.
The collection was first exhibited at an artist studio. A solo exhibition took place subsequently at Fringe Club in Hong Kong, which was used to be an old Dairy Farm cold storage depot built in 1892 and now categorised as a Grade I historic building.