Public Sphere: Addressing Ownership of Private and Public Space in a Free Form

YOU&US: WE by Ginny Lee

In Ginny Lee’s room installation YOU&US: WE, 2010, a natural interaction is created within the space and engages the audience, as the audience becomes an essential sculptural element. The physical communication between the painted figures and members of the audience divides the room without a grid or systematic parameters, allowing the audience’s physical contact with the figures to serve as the dividers, creating ‘zones’ and ‘personal space’ in the room.

Existence of personal space is hard to define in a public space but often people consciously or unconsciously find a comfort zone within the space that they interact daily. Lee’s YOU&US: WE opens the discussion of defining such term: personal space within the public, and lets the audience’s interaction to be the guide and source to find and question the means of creating a personal and private space. The installation with the presence of the audience makes it possible to investigate personal space psychologically, physically, and virtually. Therefore virtual but real space like the Internet and its association of the private and public space can be further abstractly commented through Lee’s work. Where is the border between private and public space? Who determines the degree of privacy? Does personal space exist on the Internet? Who owns such ‘personal space’ are left as the questions seeking answers in our daily lives and reinforced through Lee’s YOU&US: WE.