Kyungmin Kate Lee's IKIGAI project is a contemplative photographic series that delves into themes of identity, memory, and the nuanced interplay between visibility and invisibility. Drawing inspiration from the Japanese concept of "ikigai," meaning "a reason for being," Lee explores the emotional landscapes of diasporic life through evocative imagery.
Utilizing digital infrared techniques, multiple exposures, and layered color palettes, Lee transforms everyday scenes—such as winter forests, playgrounds, and swings—into ethereal compositions that blur the lines between reality and dreamscapes. This approach invites viewers to engage with the subtle emotions and memories embedded within these environments.
kyungminkatelee.partial.gallery
kyungminkatelee.partial.gallery
The IKIGAI series was showcased in a solo exhibition at the Ruth Upjohn Gallery from February 22 to March 4, 2023, under the auspices of the Women's Art Association of Canada. The exhibition featured works like Swing I, Playground II, and Winter Blossom I & II, each reflecting Lee's commitment to exploring the quiet complexities of diasporic existence and the search for meaning within it.
kyungminkatelee.partial.gallery
kyungminkatelee.partial.gallery
Through this body of work, Lee invites audiences to reflect on their own perceptions of belonging and the often-overlooked moments that define our sense of self and purpose.
Andy Sluckin’s Growing up in the Playground: The Social Development of Children (1981) is a seminal ethnographic study based on long-term observation of a primary school playground in Oxford, England. It empirically illustrates how children acquire social norms and build relationships through play, thereby shaping their self-identity. Sluckin conceptualizes the playground not merely as a recreational space, but as a “social field” where complex interactions take place and where social hierarchies and roles are naturally formed. This space provides children with opportunities for autonomy, a sense of belonging, and self-awareness, functioning as a critical site for the formation of the social self.
Interestingly, the concept of the playground as a "social field" can also be applied to the experience of diasporic parents, particularly immigrant mothers and fathers navigating unfamiliar cultural environments. For them, the playground is not solely a space for their children’s social development, but a transitional space where they themselves engage in informal social interactions and begin to reconstruct their own identity and sense of belonging in a new society. In this context, the playground becomes a subtle yet significant site where immigrant parents locate themselves within social networks and recalibrate their roles, emotions, and social selves.
This notion finds a powerful visual and conceptual parallel in the artist’s own work, “Ikigai.” Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of “reason for being,” the piece explores the intersection between personal purpose and cultural identity. Through techniques such as multiple exposure, infrared imaging, and neon color schemes, the artist visualizes the tension between internal desire and external societal pressure. The work engages with the fragmentation and reconstruction of diasporic identity, evoking moments where selfhood is disoriented and redefined amidst the process of migration, parenting, and everyday survival.
The playground—recurrently depicted in the imagery—is not only a space where the artist’s children develop their own identities, but also a place where the artist, as a mother and as an immigrant, experiences a parallel formation of self. It becomes a site of shared joy, adaptation, and relational growth, simultaneously mediating the child’s and the mother’s evolving identities. The mundane yet emotionally charged environment of the playground becomes a social site of co-constructed identity, where private and public, individual and communal, local and global converge.
Ultimately, Ikigai can be read as a visual reinterpretation of Sluckin’s theoretical framework. The playground is reimagined as a multilayered space of intergenerational and intercultural identity negotiation. This work offers a compelling example of how visual art can engage with sociological theory, rendering the experience of diaspora and identity formation into a sensory, affective field of inquiry.
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