ARTIST STATEMENT

Lee Yip (b. 1982, ENGLAND)

is a mixed-race, interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans lens-based work, spoken word, and sculpture. 

Born in Cambridge to an English mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father,  Yip’s early life was defined by the absence of his paternal heritage, a void he filled through the visual and sonic subcultures of UK rave, hip hop, graffiti, and Asian arthouse cinema. For Yip, these were not just hobbies, but tools for navigating an early life marked by alienation and the search for a missing identity.

A pivotal move to Guangzhou, China, in 2015 intensified these questions of identity and displacement, prompting him to document his experience through photography. Upon returning to England and later receiving a diagnosis of CPTSD, Yip recognised these images as an unintentional map of his internal struggle.

At the centre of Yip’s current practice is the flower as a living metaphor for emotion. In his series After Dark, he approaches them meditatively, making extreme close-ups with harsh direct flash that dissolve their familiar forms. Edges blur, colours bleed, and shapes distort. In this intimacy, the flowers hover between recognition and abstraction, slipping just beyond certainty. This work invites the viewer into quiet reflection, where the act of seeing becomes an act of self-discovery.

Yip currently lives and works in Seoul, South Korea.