Photo by Shae Rocco, 2012
“A trace that marks the present with its absence in advance.“
– Derrida
The pre-classical Chinese character Li, as in the title of the poem from 300 BC, Li Sao, contains pictographs which illustrate the catching and releasing of a bird to make up the sentiment of the “woes of departing”, or the lament of being human. The character Li depicts the irony of being human in that we are constantly caught and freed, both self and non-self, translated and liberated, here and there — as could only be portrayed by a human interfering with a creature of flight, as could only be elicited by a work of art.
The work of the artist is to set the conditions for art to enter. In recent work, I focus on the conditions of this fragile relationship — the “breath-turn” — between absence and presence, artist and collaborator, and our relationship to the unknowable. Painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance can each become the wings of form if it gives flight to the content at hand. The installation video, Elegy, depicts flocks of geese cast on a porcelain dead goose while a 9,000 year old flute made of bird bone plays in the background. An unfixed photograph of my Chinese grandmother’s US Citizenship document fades the more it is viewed. Images of deceased family members are painted onto slight fabric; their images flickering into existence when the installation video fades. And easily-chipped but pure porcelain becomes vitreous when it cremates the remains of birds.
EDUCATION
Stanford University, BA 1997
San Francisco Art Institute, MFA, 2011
Critical Essay by Nicole Lattuca
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
KTSF 26 Bay Area Artists Interview by Sean Au, November 3, 2023
(KTSF 26 Interview Transcript)
https://www.singtaousa.com/2023-05-20/廣場新天地策劃有創意快閃歌曲慶亞太傳/4501450#page2
Apex Express – Neon Was Never Brighter, Interview on KPFA https://kpfa.org/episode/apex-express-april-14-2022-2/
SFARTS Monthly, Neon Was Never Brighter: A Glimpse into the Future of Chinatown, April 30th, 2022. https://www.sfarts.org/story/neon-was-never-brighter-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-chinatown-427mknZe0i750hfqsH4qki
“This is Not Your Bone (China) Box: A Conversation Between Kyoo Lee and Summer Mei Ling Lee,” ASAP Journal, John Hopkins University Press, June 2019
“Welcome Home to Un-home,” How Do We Practice Radical Hospitality, Practice Space Design Studio, Cambridge MA, 2020.
Diana Lempel, “From ‘Autotomy’ and ‘Atlas of the Invisible.’” Why Do We Dream of California, Practice Space Design Studio, Cambridge MA, 2019.
Hoi Leung, “An Atlas of the Invisible, in re:home at Minnesota Street Project.” Art Practical, Shotgun Review, 22 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20210123023231/https://www.artpractical.com/review/an-atlas-of-the-invisible-in-rehome-at-minnesota-street-project/
Emily Wilson, “The Chinese Exclusion Act and the Bone Boxes that Carried Immigrants Home. In Requiem, Summer Mei-Ling Lee remembers the hospital that shipped thousands of boxes full of bones from the US to China,” Hyperallergic, December 2017
Charmaine Koh, “Summer Mei-Ling Lee: Requiem.”Art Practical, Shotgun Review 16 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20210122111407/https://www.artpractical.com/review/summer-mei-ling-lee-requiem-chinese-culture-center/
Hannah Kingsley-Ma, “A New Art Exhibit Traces the Journey of Bone Boxes Throughout the Diaspora, Aired on KALW, Dec 11, 2017” http://www.kalw.org/post/new-art-exhibit-traces-journey-bone-boxes-throughout-chinese-diaspora#stream/0
Blue Fay, “‘Requiem’: Summer Mei Ling Lee explores diaspora, repatriation in multimedia art installation,” The Daily Californian, 30 October 2017. https://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/30/requiem-summer-mei-ling-lee-chinese-culture-center-2/
Creo Noveno, “Chinatown’s Ross Alley Transformed…” KQED-NPR Arts, 28 February 2017. https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/02/28/chinatowns-ross-alley-transformed-with-ripples-of-immigrant-history/
Jonathon Curiel, “Know Your Street Art: Liminal Space/Crossings,” SF Weekly, February 9th, 2017. http://www.sfweekly.com/culture/knowyourstreetart/know-your-street-art-liminal-spacecrossings/
“华裔艺术家李美玲《最近的距离》| 艺术不是语言但高于语言” March 2016 http://www.todayfocus.cn/p/7842.html
Roy Forward, ‘Soft Power: Chinese Women Artists & the Female Body’ 软实力: 中国女艺术家和女身体. Australian National University, 2016
“Psychoanalysis and the Work of Summer Lee.” by Victor Liu
Sara Boffito, “Ephemeral.” International Field Theory Association, March 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20170410220231/http://www.internationalfieldtheoryassociation.com/blog-by-sara-boffito
“Overseas Chinese artists explore multiple cultures.” November 2014 http://szdaily.sznews.com/html/2014-11/13/content_3061361.htm
Laura Boles Faw, “Summer Lee and Marta Dell’Angelo: Fragile,” March 2016. http://www.summerleeart.com/wp-content/uploads/Fragile-Essay_Boles-Faw.pdf
2018 CAAM Film Festival, “Liminal Space.”
Chinese American Museum of Chicago Film Series, 2018, “Requiem”
Nicole Lattuca,“Summer Lee: Thin Veils,” Shanghai Art Critic 2015 Innaugural Issue.
Sue Wang,“Art by Overseas Chinese Female Artists on Display at He Xiangning Art Museum,” http://en.cafa.com.cn/art-by-overseas-chinese-female-artists-on-display-at-he-xiangning-art-museum.html
Laura Boles Faw, “A Review: Summer Lee and Christy Chan: Happiness,” http://studio110projects.com/happiness
Sura Wood, “CCC Champions Chinatown Art,” SF Arts Monthly, August 2014 https://sfarts.org/feature.cfm?featureID=354&title=chinese-culture-foundation-champions-chinatown-arts
“Summer Mei-Ling Lee: Into the Nearness of Distance.” ISBN-10: 193095803X ISBN-13: 978-1930958036
Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, ISBN-10: 0-9787359-0-0