On the High Wall: Julie Lee, Kei Ito, and Brandon Tho Harris

Presented in partnership with Strange Fire Collective and guest curated by Kelly Lee Webeck and Jesse Egner

July 21 – 24, 2022

The High Wall, partnering with Strange Fire Collective, presented video works by Julie Lee, Kei Ito, and Brandon Tho Harris from July 21 – 24. Strange Fire Collective curators Kelly Lee Webeck (@rocketfacedweeb) and Jesse Egner (@jesseegner) interviewed the individual artists; those interviews can be found here:

Interview with Julie Lee
Interview with Kei Ito
Interview with Brandon Tho Harris

Julie Lee (she/her) is a Korean-American artist from Alabama residing in Pittsburgh, PA. Her lens-based works (primarily collage and photography) explore themes of ancestry and the photograph as existential affirmation. These works have circulated nationally and internationally, encouraging new ways of seeing and representing ideas in contemporary image culture, of being seen, and of speculating historical, psychological reconstructions.

Kei Ito is a visual artist working primarily with camera-less photography and installation art who is currently teaching at the International Center of Photography (ICP). Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. By excavating and uncovering hidden histories connected to his own, Ito utilizes his generational past to use as a case study for contemporary and future events. Many of Ito’s artworks transform both art and non-art spaces into temporal monuments that became platforms for the audience to explore social issues and the memorials dedicated to the losses suffered from the consequences of those issues. Within these intertwined pasts, Ito shines a light on power and its relationship to larger global issues that often led to and result in both war and peace alike.

Brandon Tho Harris is an interdisciplinary artist and arts professional based in Houston, Texas. His creative practice explores his identity as a child of war refugees. Through intensive research on the Vietnamese diaspora in relation to his family history, he examines notions of intergenerational trauma, displacement, and the land as a living archive. Found in his work are often self-portraiture, his family archives, found objects, raw materials, and historical images portraying the Vietnam war. By the use of photography, video, performance, and installation, he provides viewers with a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding migration.