photo work, Holly Lee

One's (2014 on going series)






Intimate portrait of personal objects, photographed front and back and looking from both sides. It was first shown in TEN, a group show of ten artists in February 2015 in Toronto. The exhibits are not for sale. Special edition of 8x10 inch (a pair of front and back images) archival pigment prints are issued.

PictureWords (2014 on going series)






An visual exploration of the Chinese writing system, with Tang poetry as the starting point. A series of five images was inaugurated in 50(photography)x4.2014, an exhibition at Gallery 50 in Toronto in May 2014. It is an on-going project, the recent exhibition was a solo held at Gallery 50 in January 2015. PictureWords prints are archival pigment prints, 17x22 inch and in the edition of five.

Claw Script (2013)

The series consists of eight 17x22 inch archival pigment prints, with an edition of ten. It was exhibited in 2013 at INDEXG in Toronto.

Flip book project (2011-)


I started shooting the project in 2010, with one flip book produced. It is a portrait of a friend. In 2011, I produced 4 flip books for the exhibition organized by Anothermoutainman. It was exhibited in Hong Kong and China. Subsequently, more flip books are created.

Shan Hai Jing (2010 on going series)




A collection of park panoramas. A travelogue through time, myths and imagination. First work was exhibited in What's Next 30x30 at The OCT Art & Design Gallery in China in 2011. More work from the series was shown in a three-person show at INDEXG in 2013. These archival pigment prints are in the size of 22x8 inch, 10 editions.

LOMOSAMPLER (2002)


It was a project initiated by Gallery TPW (Toronto Photograhers Workshop) for CONTACT - the Annual Photography Festival in Toronto. Each photographer was given a Lomo camera to shoot within a period of time. I produced a series of pictures and it was bound into the form of a sampler. I called it LOMOSAMPLER.

Hong Kong Memories (1994-98)


Hong Kong Memories was a work produced in 1994-98. A project supported by Fuji Films, with historical/personal images reproduced from Fuji instant films and transferred on paper as diptychs. It was exhibited in a three-person show Hong Kong: Tales of a City in 2009 at INDEXG, Toronto. Vintage digital prints sizesxxxxx

Hollian Thesaurus (1993-2000)


The Hollian Thesaurus series has more than ten works and is a contemplation on Art, Politics, Religion and Power. Most of the images touched on the period of historical change in Hong Kong: the pre-and-post 1997, when Hong Kong was critically searching for it’s identity.

These two pieces are vintage photographs from a suite of four, originally printed for an exhibition curated by Kohtaro Iizawa New Images from Hong Kong (Yokohama 1996) with contemporary works by eight Hong Kong photographers. Subsequently, they were shown in the exhibition On Hong Kong organized by NuNaHeduo (Hong Kong City Hall, 1998) and New Voices (Zhung Zheng Gallery, Taiwan 1998). Additional photographs from the Hollian Thesaurus series were shown on different occasions - in the inaugurated exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (2000),
Re-considered Crossings: Representation Beyond Hybridity (Fotogalerie Wien 2001), Conceptual Photography since the 90’s, works by Chinese Artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China (2004, Hong Kong Central Library).

Bauhinia, in Front of Hong Kong Harbour, circa 1997
C-type Photograph
49 x 39 inch, framed
vintage

Jinx, in Front of Hong Kong Harbour, circa 1994
C-type Photograph
46 x 38.5 inch, framed
vintage

Black and white Photograms (1994)

I experimented a lot with photograms in the 90s. I did personal work as well as incorporating them into my commercial work. I began one black and white photogram project supported by Agfa paper. It was supposed to be a hundred b/w 8x10 inch photograms. I did four and the project was never fully realized. I had also done a few dislocation covers with photograms.

Travelogue (1992-2001)


1. Berlin 1994
2. Camden, Maine 1994
3. Cat Postcards 1989-1994

1, 2 and 3 are collaged works published in a special issue on "Journey" in Dislocation Magazine (Vol. 4, Issue 6, June 1995).

4. Maxilla & Mandible, New York City 1992
5. Blacksmith, Praha 1992
6. Toronto May and Candle Cheers, an Email to Beatrix, 1999.

Both 4 & 5 were first published in Dislocation Magazine (Photo Transfer Issue December 15, 1992). All three (4, 5, 6) were exhibited at Gallery 44 Vitrines in Toronto in 2001.

Cibachrome Photograms in Triptych (1991)


Three vintage unique photogram panels (each measures 32 x 24 inch) were produced for a four-person exhibition Pin-Pun (1991), with Lau Kin-Wai, Lau Ching-Ping and Lee Ka-Sing. First exhibited at the Hong Kong Fringe Club and went on tour to the Hong Kong Chinese university and Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the same year.

Untitled #1 - 3 untitled, 1991
Cibachrome photograph, triptych
32 x 24 inch
vintage

Duo series (1991-2015)


The DUO series consists of three sets (each set two images), all archival pigment prints in the size of 17 x 22 inch:

1. DUO: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me I & II
2. Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo / We knew each other since tender age
3. Lady with glossy lips and red nail-polish / Lady in black cheongsam with flower pattern

DUO is the first pair, produced for the DUO issue of DISLOCATION magazine (see 1) - These are images with layers of old and new family photos.

Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo is a constructed photogram on Cibachrome paper, while We knew each other since tender age was old photographs manipulated digitally (see 2).

The third pair (see 3) are re-generated photographs from old pictures of my mother and my aunt.

In 2012, The Hong Kong Heritage Museum organized Beyond The Portrait, a large scale exhibition of portrait photography by Hong Kong photographers. Two bodies of of portrait works were selected, my earlier black and white portraits My Friends, Artists and Others, as well as works of family photographs from the DUO series.

DUO I: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me, 1992
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

(Diptych right)
DUO II: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me, 1992
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo, 1991
Archival pigment print (with scan from the original photogram)
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

We knew each other since tender age, 1996
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Lady with glossy lips and red nail-polish, 1991
Archival pigment print (with scan from the original photogram)
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Lady in black cheongsam with flower pattern, 2015
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015


Dung Huang (1991)

Three unique cibachromes in the size of 16 x 20 inch. The series was exhibited at the Hong Kong Institute for Promotion of Chinese Culture Gallery in 1991.

Footsteps of June series (1989)


These three vintage photographs were originally made for the exhibition Contemporary Photography: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (1994, Hong Kong Arts Centre). Footsteps of June was an outgrowth from The Golden Lotus, an experimental dance/theatre piece (1989) conceived by Sunny Pang. This series was first shown in 1989 at Le Cardre Gallery and 97 Brasserie as a suite of six works, in smaller print format.

Mui Cheuk-yin, dancer
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage

Footsteps
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage

Peter Suart, musician
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage

The carpet rolling out emerging scenes (mid-80s)

1. My Studio Beijing
2. Kodak Yellow Beach Chair
3. Swimming Pool
4. Light and Shadow II

These still shots were taken from my studio around mid-80s. They appeared in Qui Ying Shi Kan in 1986. It is a poetry magazine designed as postcards, bound in an accordion format.

Si-ling and Owltoise series (1985)

A series of 16x20 inch black and white prints. It was exhibited at the Photo Centre Gallery Hong Kong in 1985.

Pictures of My Friends, Artists and Others (1981-1986)


A series of about 30 black and white portraits made in the 80s of artists and friends. The first pictures were exhibited at the World Wide Centre in Hong Kong in the Women of the World exhibition in 1981. In 2012, it was shown in the exhibition Hong Kong Photography series: Beyond the Portrait at The Hong Kong Heritage Museum, where a number of prints were collected in the Museum's archive.