Jung ji Lee
© 2010 Jungji Lee
© 2010 Jungji Lee
Born in Tokyo, Japan, to Japanese and Korean parents, Jung ji discovered that art helps him to express issues that he feels regarding his heritage
“Primarily as a response to the racism I faced as
a bi-racial person, I invented this character called Ubume. Smooth-skinned and nearly-featurless, she serves as my surrogate self, a synthesis of my two cultures, a metaphor for the meeting of opposites, and the border that separates them.”
Jung ji wanted to create a creature who was culturally ambiguous and who personified self-acceptance. Her simple shape is repeated and juxtaposed against a universe of of drawings, doodles, text and maps, with a palette inspired by cave paintings. Ubume acts as guide in a wildly unpredictable and marred universe
“I believe that everyone perceives themselves, in some way, as a minority of sorts. It is my hope that Ubume may act as an ambassador of ‘Other-ness’ and that people of all backgrounds will feel at home with her.”
