Simon Lee, Connecticut Bed & Breakfast: Kavi Gupta | 835 W. Washington Blvd. Chicago, IL, 60607

Kavi Gupta Gallery is pleased to present Connecticut, Bed and Breakfast, a project by New York-based artist Simon Lee. Connecticut, Bed and Breakfast consists of a video projection with accompanying photo-montages continuing his interest in film projections and the use of everyday objects. Lee’s work often depicts fleeting moments of time leaving viewers with a feeling of inevitable emotional loss.

Connecticut, Bed and Breakfast probes the occurrences of events that go on behind the closed doors of a hotel room. Through a kaleidoscope of imagery the disparate histories of strangers are intertwined as this private and personal space becomes viewable to the passerby. The actions of these individuals are shown through fragmented shadows that rhythmically dance across the room to an intuitive soundtrack, produced by Jim White, which underscores the entire film. A man cleans his flute, a couple makes love, and a woman folds clothes though no one is ever seen. Their abstracted reflections are fluidly juxtaposed together and cast out onto the walls, furniture and bed occupying the room, which itself is turned askew further emphasizing the awkwardness of this voyeuristic encounter. The dramatization of light and dark create a reference to film noir and evoke nostalgia for old Hollywood movies as well as the stage. The room then becomes the actual star of the film, where all of these events intersect.

Simon Lee is a British born artist based in New York. He has exhibited extensively throughout the US and Europe including solo exhibitions at the Tinguely Museum, Basel, Roebling Hall, NY, Ingalls & Associates, Miami, Pierogi, Brooklyn and the Sculpture Center, NY. Selected group exhibitions include shows at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion in Stamford, Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art.