Under the Open Sky

In a recent interview with writer Tiarney Miekus, artist Lindy Lee reflected on her personal and artistic journey as a Chinese–Australian woman and the importance of ‘being true to your craft and your being’.¹

It was incredibly moving to hear Lee speak so intimately about her experience. I was first drawn to Lee’s work at the National Gallery of Australia’s Infinite Conversations: Asian-Australian Artistic Exchange (2018). Studying at art school and one of a few non-Anglo-Australian students, I was struggling to find a place for my own practice shaped by my Taiwanese heritage and identity. Lee’s The tyranny and liberation of distance 2015 series gave me validation as she examined the migrant experience through her family archive, reprinted on steel with burned perforations. I found comfort in Lee’s work in a similar manner to the way she found solace in the paintings of the Baroque female artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653) among the male-dominated masters of art history. Listening to the introspective conversation with Miekus, I found myself particularly engaged with Lee’s existential perspectives.

Lee’s search for self and belonging was first expressed in the late 1980s with her appropriations of Old Master paintings through photocopying. In a performance-like manner, each copy was continuously fed through a Xerox printer until the image was obscured by the carbon ink buildup. The duplication and layering of the same artwork gave rise to the duality of the word 'copy’. Copy is defined as ‘an imitation … or a reproduction of an original work’ but also as ‘to model oneself on’ when used ​​as a verb.² Reflecting on the series and her experience growing up during the White Australia policy, Lee says:

Through the repeated act of printing, Lee questioned the meaning of authenticity and challenged notions of her own positioning within the canons of Western art history.

The exploration of the self through materiality and the cyclical nature of the series continues in Lee’s practice today. From flung bronzes and works on paper to larger perforated sculptures and installations, her work is grounded in a cosmic understanding of life as a continuum stemming from the philosophies of Zen Buddhism and Taoism.

'Each and every one of us, in our existence, holds up the sky in our own ways’, Lee muses, ‘under the open sky, everything exists and everything is part of everything else.' ⁴

This idea of acceptance and having a place in the world — one which Lee has continued to explore since making her photocopy series — transcends her work and is an encouraging message for many emerging artists like myself, for whom Lee remains a respected role model. There is a traceable and unbroken line in Lee’s practice through her ongoing exploration of materiality in search of profound truths and the universal concept of belonging.

This story is part of the 2024 Young Writers Digital Residency.