Lee Sze Man (Sarotta)

About

Lee Sze Man, Sarotta is an art historian, curator, and educator based in London and Hong Kong. Deeply engaged with the intersections of art, education, and feminist theories, she explores how feminist interventions in curating influence audience perception, interaction, and interpretation within the contemporary realm of post-representation.

Lee is particularly interested in understanding how feminist curators navigate art-historical challenges through curatorial and educational strategies. As Dorothee Richter has observed, the notion of “the curatorial” can imply a problematic ennoblement of curating as a meaning-producing activity within a politically and ideologically contested field. To create a more inclusive art world, it is crucial for the curator to see the curatorial function as part of a developing discursive formation, with its specific inclusions, exclusions in respect of race, class, and gender. Bearing this perspective in mind, Lee’s Independent Research Project, entitled Interpreting the Real: Noticing Gaps in Feminist Curating, investigates how examining tensions and scrutinising the gaps in feminist curatorial strategies and theories can reveal the layered complexities of ‘women artists’ and ‘feminist art history.’ Lee believes that gaps are needed for a more opaque and disinterested framework for learning and interpretation, while developing one’s interested, intersectional consciousness.

Responding to the Triangle Network’s brief regarding ‘Communities in Time’, her graduate project I Am A Moment in Time addresses the crisis of detachment from the present in a hyper-global context. The open-ended nature of the project creates a gap between viewers’ understanding and the artwork’s meaning. As this project concludes, it raises a further question: How can the art historian-curator effectively utilise knowledge gaps and maintain a critical tension between curated subjects and their mediative effects to elicit diverse and unforeseen cultural responses?

Prior to her studies at the Royal College of Art, Lee obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Hong Kong. As a former school teacher and Educator at M+, Lee is committed to the transformative power of the museum. By exploring the intersection of mediation and education, Lee aims to open up opportunities for co-creation across professional roles, contributing to a more multifaceted and inclusive art world, beginning with institutions.

Lee is concurrently pursuing a Master’s in History of Art at the University of Cambridge, where she has written notable essays such as Expanding Feminist Interventions in Art History through a‘Disinterested Interest’ and Popping the Bubble: The Enigma of Otherness while undertaking her MA at the Royal College of Art. Her developing dissertation explores imperceptible subjects in women’s art and their implications for notions of representation. In addition, Lee has contributed to curatorial and communal projects with several prominent organisations in Hong Kong, including Para Site, Asia Art Archive, M+ and the Art Promotion Office at Oil Street.