Ripe fruit, agape nuns, oysters, Cherry Chapsticks, and pearl necklaces… Joyce Lee’s artworks are fecund with provocative symbolism. Her surrealist assemblages, created using classical watercolour painting and pencil, are holy and profane, uniting elements of high culture with trash, sex, and humour. 

While often calling upon overt religious imagery, Lee’s works regularly treats the naked body as a literal landscape upon which other stories unfold. Inspired by Dalí and Magritte alongside her favourite horror movies, the Korean artist sexualises or anthropomorphises seemingly innocuous objects in her ongoing exploration of gender and sexuality. Her scenes are wealthy in “breast-like fruits and genital-like fish” as waterfalls flow between splayed, giant legs and a tiny man reclines in a hammock formed from a pair of panties pulled taught between a pair of colossal thighs. She tells Dazed, “I would like the viewer to be taken to a spot of the subconscious.”

Lee’s eponymous debut book [published by Baron Books] delves into her more moderen archive to bring together chosen works made over the past 4 years. Like a portal to a parallel world of Lee’s imagination, the artist hopes that the book will offer people an “escape from reality”; another, playful but disorientating world that toys not only with scale but with preconceived expectations. “Throughout my work, the viewer can observe mixtures of disparate times and spaces or the presence of surprising objects in my work, which at first glance look strange and create an alienating feeling,” she explains in a conversation over email. “This sensation of being challenged in the best way we normally see and experience the world is something I like, each in art and literature.”

Take a more in-depth take a look at her work within the gallery above. Below, Joyce Lee shares her thoughts on Instagram’s unjust censorship of artists, talks us through her creative rituals, and divulges her intention of penetrating your psychic terrain.

Please could you introduce us to the landscape/psychic terrain which your work depicts?

Joyce Lee: The human body is a medium for me to inform various stories about relationships, sex, beauty, love, acceptance and even arguments across the body itself. My drawing style is closer to surrealism than realism, and I prefer to explore metaphors and symbolism, moderately than portraying sex realistically. I also explore themes of gender, identity, equality, and sometimes empowerment through visual metaphors. I would like the ladies inside my art to be liberated and I would like them to specific their feelings freely with their bodies.

How would you describe your aesthetic? 

Joyce Lee: I even have been fascinated by Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, the nice surrealist artists of the 20th century. Like Dali, I strive to create provocative content through the use of classical watercolour painting and pencil drawing techniques to perfect the feel and lighting in each of my pieces. I take advantage of these classical drawing techniques and materials so I can differentiate myself from the digital content we consistently see on the web or in post-internet art.

“I’ve all the time enjoyed imagining what it could be wish to live in a world that existed beyond three dimensions and one dimension of time” – Joyce Lee

Your compositions place so many would-be discordant elements side by side. How do these different elements interact and what happens to them after they’re placed side by side?

Joyce Lee: I consider myself to be a really spiritual person. Once I was younger, I lived a more religious than spiritual life. I’ve all the time enjoyed imagining what it could be wish to live in a world that existed beyond three dimensions and one dimension of time, so the concept of ‘parallel realities’ appeals to me and is expressed within the content of my art. Throughout my work, the viewer can observe mixtures of disparate times and spaces or the presence of surprising objects in my work, which at first glance look strange and create an alienating feeling. This sensation of being challenged in the best way we normally see and experience the world is something I like, each in art and literature.

This book consists of labor out of your archive. Over what period were the pictures made? And what recent features of the work revealed themselves when you were taking a look at them together in a book?

Joyce Lee: Most of them were created between 2019 and 2022. Once I see the number of artworks for my debut book published by Baron, I realise how my style is consistently evolving. Before 2019, I actually enjoyed exploring themes around horror and the gothic.

Are there any significant recurring figures of symbols and will you tell us about them?

Joyce Lee: Most of the objects that appear to be body parts, reminiscent of breast-like fruits and genital-like fishes are an exploration of gender. I get lots of inspiration from objects and forms that resemble the human body… reminiscent of spherical or cylindrical objects which call to mind the curves of a girl’s body or the form of a person’s genitals.

Please could you talk us through a number of the richly provocative symbolism?

Joyce Lee: The ‘nun’ and ‘prayer’ series is interesting, because it represents religious conservatism. I desired to subvert ideas about how religion might be polarising in visual culture.

How does the work speak of recent life?

Joyce Lee: I’ve all the time wanted my work to supply people an escape from reality; for them to get excited, and even blush. My collectors and fans have sent me lots of messages expressing this. I would like the viewer to be taken to a spot of the subconscious.

“I would like the viewer to be taken to a spot of the subconscious” – Joyce Lee

What does the work say about censorship and sexuality?

Joyce Lee: Social networks like Instagram allow nudity in artworks like paintings and sculptures but, at the identical time, I see many artists’ works are removed by the platform. Such censorship is concerning because it challenges freedom of expression and speech. Sometimes I see very violent photos on social media. I react to those by simply selecting to not see similar content. All of us have the power to decide on what we wish to see and listen to, which is key to freedom of expression and speech, due to this fact I don’t imagine Instagram should censor work.

What form of moments and experiences feed into your work?

Joyce Lee: I find inspiration from all the things around me including natural objects and other artists’ works. Discovering interesting sources is key to my creative process. I’m very interested by how such prefabricated images and experiences influence myself and in addition society. I’m also interested by appropriation and sometimes recreate paintings in order that they have a recent meaning.

Do you’ve gotten any creative rituals or routines you would tell us about?

Joyce Lee: I see things and take into consideration how I would transform them, finding ways I can sexualise or anthropomorphize bizarre objects. I do lots of research and planning reminiscent of calculating angles, making compositions and occupied with suitable colors which can be aligned with the work’s concept.

Are you able to describe the environment through which you’re employed? What type of objects, items, or images do you’ve gotten around you in your studio once you’re working?

Joyce Lee: I’m working at home at present, I closed my studio and moved my whole workspace to my home in 2020 because I believed my cats and dogs were too old and that I should spend more time with them. Fortunately, all my 4 cats and two dogs are still with me and I get lots of energy from them. I even have a really big television screen right across from my work desk, I just can’t work in silence!

Culturally, what excites you most in the mean time?

Joyce Lee: I like horror! The movie Nope directed by Jordan Peele and Pearl directed by Ti West are great examples.

Joyce Lee by Joyce Lee is accessible for pre-order from Baron now