* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Tae Lee is an artist based in Los Angeles, CA.
Tae describes the work by saying, “As an outside observer, I become fascinated by the conviction humanity have in their beliefs. Curiously, a person’s ethical morality is cooked with a recipe of goodness and righteousness, as their own lives are built on the backs of so many. In a quick overview of life as a Hollywood film, the villains would often be portrayed as some heartless wolf-like Wall Street tycoon. Yet, the heroic working class protesters of Occupy Wall Street are sharing information using electronics loaded with blood soaked conflict-minerals from some hellish mine in the Congo, assembled into completion by the machine-like hands of Asian sweatshop “workers”. The hypocritical and cyclical tendencies of the material world can only be soothed by the light of empathy, an effort mystics and shamans from times past have all championed. The illuminated visages of the Holy Mary and the Great Buddha radiate a similar empathy, their peace not denying the great cost of sustaining life. This grace, used to navigate through this tumultuous and ultimately comedic lifetime, is the realm in which I seek to explore my art.”
