The Hip Hop Project (2), Nikki S. Lee

In her Project series, Korean-born performance artist Nikki S. Lee appropriates various American subcultures through manipulating her clothing, body, and gestures to take up new identities that are not her own. Various projects feature the artist as a punk, lesbian, yuppie, exotic dancer, and senior citizen. In The Hip Hop Project (2), Lee inserts herself into a community of young black musicians and hip hop fans. She appears alongside two men, posing confidently with darkened skin, corn-rowed hair, and a sleeveless t-shirt. Like many of her Project photographs, the final image is usually documented by an existing member of the community, often with a disposable camera, as indicated by the time stamp in the bottom right corner. Those who participate with Lee are aware of her process, intent, and role as an artist.
Within her larger series, Lee’s attempts to visually pass in communities of color different from her own have generated conflicting reactions. Some viewers interpret her Projects as an ongoing commentary on the fluidity of contemporary identities or as a diversified cultural representation of Korean and Asian women. Others have called out Lee’s visual appropriations of race in The Hip Hop Project, citing in particular the artist’s darkened skin as a form of blackface. Lee’s physical modification remains in dialogue with this practice, a theatrical caricature used by white Americans to perform African American racial stereotypes. Lee’s controversial work raises challenging questions about presentations of race and ethnicity, and provokes significant debate about cultural appropriation in the visual arts.