Kayee C
Who Is Listening?, 2018, Inkjet on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Bright White 310g, available in 2 sizes
End of the Party
This series was created during a stay in Le Perche, France, in a 15th-century manor house called Manoir Michelet renovated by a French couple who are retired art dealers.
“End of the party” consists of various mises en scene involving unexplained unconscious bodies, drama and mystery, all interpreted by the photographer herself, shot entirely without assistance.
Surviving characters in this series experience a range of emotions including guilt, shock, indifference as well as benevolence. It is not clear whether someone committed a crime or witnessed an accident or a natural death. These are all inspired by the experience of living as a surviving twin. “End of the party” can mean the end of the intimate time where twins share a womb together, the end of carefree innocence once the survivor’s guilt takes root, or the moment the surviving twin lets go of the guilt and makes peace with the facts with love and benevolence.
SELECTED WORKS
Sisters
Sisters is an on-going series staging close relationships with dramatic tension and ambiguous intentions.
God Confined
This series was created during the first French lockdown to flatten the curve of SARS-CoV-2 infections from mid-March to mid-May 2020.
The dominant atmosphere of uncertainty at the beginning of the lockdown also came with helplessness and fear. With humour as a defence mechanism, I imagined the daily life of a confined God and tried to depict how helpless this imaginary God would feel being confined and having to leave humans to their own devices.
This series does not refer to any particular religion and has no intention to question any personal belief. While this series was designed to be lighthearted, some images end up carrying heavier emotions. The various representations of the stir craziness of an imaginary God intend to provide a creative perspective on our own state of confinement - the art of spending time with oneself.
VIDEOS
PRESS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kayee is a fine art photographer born and raised in Hong Kong before relocating to France a decade ago. She uses techniques of self-portrait and digital composite to create storytelling images to explore the dynamics of relationships on different levels. Her works can be humorous, dramatic or melancholic staging of a variety of human interactions.
Human relationships are her main source of inspiration. She builds up her inspiration reserve through her daily observations of human interactions and her own emotions. Her favourite subject above all is the paradox between social disconnect and our desire to belong. She attempts to offer a critical, offbeat and sometimes poetic look on the way we relate to each other.
Characters staged in her portraits range from complete strangers, friends, coworkers to family members, trapped in familiar settings from famous paintings, mysterious surroundings or entirely surreal dimensions. They often struggle to maintain a perfect balance between the roles imposed by the society and their primal desire to be themselves. Out of phase with the pursuit of an appearance of cohesion, some cannot help but display marginal attitudes such as laziness, contempt, sadism or disillusionment.
Kayee works solely alone. From hair, makeup, wardrobe, lighting, camera set-up, acting to retouch, she is a lone ranger. This is her chosen way of working allowing her flexible hours and deep focus. She sees technical obstacles while being alone on set as fuel to problem-solving. Born partially deaf, she views her solitary way of working as a perfect balance between physical constraints and creative excitement.
Kayee’s works can be seen as a whole narrative piece in which each element tells its own story. Viewers should feel free to reorder them the way they wish in order to create their own narratives. Many of the photos were inspired by classical paintings such as the two versions of “Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist” b y Caravaggio and “Salvator Mundi” by Leonardo da Vinci.
Kayee practiced different art forms including classical piano and theatre acting before fully focusing on digital photography in 2015. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Hong Kong with first class honours (2005).