STEVEN YOUNG LEE

On the evening of March 16, 2021, a man opened fire in three separate spas in Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people–six of whom were Asian women. This event coincided with an uptick of anti-Asian sentiments in the United States over the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there have been no charges of a hate crime. The perpetrator, 21-year-old Robert Long, had legally purchased a 9mm handgun only hours before the shooting.

At approximately 5:54 pm, police received the first calls reporting a shooting at Young’s Asian Massage, where two people were fatally shot and three others were wounded; two of which would later die while in the hospital. Nearly an hour later and thirty miles away, police responded to reports of a robbery at Gold Massage Spa, where three women were found fatally shot. While police were responding to the incident at Gold Massage Spa, reports of another shooting came in from Aromatherapy Spa across the street. There they found another woman fatally shot.

According to authorities, Long described the spas as “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.” During a press conference on the shootings, Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department paraphrased what Long told investigators about his motives, saying “he was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope, and I guess it was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.” — framing that drew criticism from many on social media who said this diminished the tragedy of the eight people who were killed.

“Shattered Dreams and Movements of Change” is a memorial to the six Asian women who were targeted and killed in the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings. Each had immigrated to the United States in hope of a better life and new opportunities. Despite working difficult jobs at these spas to support their families, they positively impacted so many people in their lifetime. While their dreams and lives were senselessly taken from them, their complex stories as individuals, and not as a category, deserve to be remembered.

The Atlanta Spa Shootings, and the deaths of these individuals, became a transformative catalyst for action. This event began a groundswell of support that galvanized the #StopAsianHate movement, focused on the rise of violence of Asian people in America. Emerging from this senseless tragedy, may the memory of their lives remain with us and their sacrifice towards movements of change.

The victims at Young’s Asian Massage were Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Paul Andre Michels, 54. The victims at the Gold Spa were Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Soon Chung Park, 74. The victim at Aromatherapy Spa was Yong Ae Yue, 63. One additional victim, Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30, was injured in the shooting.

 

References:

Homeland Security Digital Library

Eight killed, including six Asian women, in Atlanta-area spa shootings; suspect arrested after manhunt

Atlanta shooting suspect was a patient at evangelical treatment center close to first targeted spa

Selection of two plates from “Tiger and Magpie”.

Tiger and Magpies
2019
porcelain, cobalt inlay, glaze
150 x 100 x 1”

This installation was created for a solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. It was inspired by a painting in the museum’s collection of a Tiger and Magpie, a genre of paintings from the Joseon Dynasty.

These “minhwa” paintings were created around the New Year by itinerant artists who would provide them to families in order to bring luck and good fortune in the coming year. The tiger depicted the ruling class and the magpie represented the common people and these paintings provided a social commentary of the relationship between the two parties.

I have translated this painting onto a series of 96 handmade plates that replace the figures with contemporary characters from my childhood, Tony the Tiger and Heckle and Jeckle.  Tony is an anthropomorphized figure of strength and Heckle and Jeckle were rabble-rousers that created mischief. Both characters have a direct gaze with the viewer inviting them into the narrative.

Steven Young Lee
Gourd Vases with Dodos
2018
porcelain, cobalt pigment, glaze
18 x 19 x 10”

These works were originally produced as part of a call and response to the historic collection at the Frick Pittsburgh, in the 2018 exhibition, Revive, Remix, Respond:

There is a lively conversation between Steven Young Lee’s Gourd Vases with Dodos and their historic inspiration. Lee has taken one of the most recognizable forms—a porcelain vase—and disrupted our expectations with a gorgeously imperfect deconstruction. While Lee’s creation references the Meissen vases most explicitly, he appropriated patterns from several objects in the Frick Pittsburgh collection, including other works on view in this exhibition. The fact that Lee painstakingly created these complex forms to match one another in proportion and scale before deconstructing them is a true testament to his craft.

View the exhibition page HERE

Steven Young Lee
Cup Panels
2013, 2015
porcelain, copper inlay, glaze, shelving-glass, aluminum

The panel of cups titled Red, Blue and White were created for installation at the Jane Hartsook gallery in New York, NY. Each panel consisted of 100 hand thrown porcelain cups in a 10×10 grid. The decorative motifs used on the cups were appropriated from historical references from various cultural origins–Chinese, Korean, French, Dutch, English, etc. In the creation of all 300 cups, the patterns evolved from their original source throughout the process. This simulated the organic development of pattern as it was used as a visual language, subsequently evolving with ethnic influence.

The title of the piece references three genres of decoration in ceramics–blue and white, red and white, and white on white, while also isolating the representation of color i.e. red, white and blue to associate with contemporary connotations. In addition, the proportion of the panels correlated to a large color field painting that would allow the various motifs to create a single homogenous color representation.
Cups were chosen as a vehicle for the decoration as an archetypal base form. The cups were not sold individually, but rather remained a part of the whole. As one of the more intimate ceramic forms, they are instead relegated to become part of the structure of the installation.