Carissa Lee

Artist in Residence2024

Dec 18

she/her

Carissa Lee | Photo courtesy of the artist

Carissa Lee is obsessed with the visceral across all mediums of her work (performance, sound, public intervention, workshops, video, and theater). Her work is rooted in Black exhalation—the breath between grief and jubilation, isolation and communion. Her work builds a home she is still searching for, using recordings, writing, and Black southern culture, including its medical histories, stories, and music, to materialize emotions and invite collective reflection.

Interested in the science of spirit, she tests hypotheses with audiences, transforming the dynamic between performer and viewer into one of shared participation and discovery. Her work explores the emotional landscape and tensions of global anti-Blackness by researching the known—personal experience, Black vernaculars, and cultural memory—to illuminate the unknown. She is captivated with the mundane, finding meaning in everyday acts: washing clothes, walking, breathing, quiet listening, watching waves, and uncovering the mythologies woven into Black southern life.

Across all the mediums she works in, sound is the catalyst. She builds intricate sound collages using archives of Black voices—speeches from visionaries, poetry, recorded conversations, music, and family storytelling—that carry the weight of history and effervescence of possibility. Her work invites participants to listen, to remember both personal and collective memories, and to step into a new time together—a Black time—that is not endless, but different.

Two Black individuals stand with their palms turned towards the sky. They are walking in a circle around an array of glass water-filled vessels set on a white sheet on the floor. A projection of prairie grass falls across the artists. — Open Lab: *Thrival*, 2024 | Photo by Ry Thiel

The Fellowship Project

The HCL Fellowship will support the ongoing development of Thrival. This performance-based work is rooted in themes of transformation, resilience, and renewal. The work deconstructs the sounds of survival—laughs, cries, sighs, whoops, screams, long notes, harmonies, and rhythms—and uses them as foundational elements to explore the journey from merely surviving to truly thriving. It weaves in themes of baptism and renewal, asking how we collectively navigate and transcend the challenges that define survival.

During the fellowship, Carissa anticipates expanding Thrival, moving it from an initial sketch into a fully realized full-length work in collaboration with Kezia Waters and Avreeayl Ra. This phase of the project will involve rehearsals, experimentation, and discovery, deepening the emotional and thematic dimensions of the piece.

The Fellowship year builds directly on ideas that began during the initial HCL residency, reflecting her evolving exploration of sound and collective emotional landscapes. It marks a significant step in her creative journey: The development and presentation of Thrival as a transformative, immersive experience.

Two Black individuals sit on a white blanket on the floor, on which is an array of glass containers (jugs, bowls, pitchers) filled with water. They are each pouring water from one vessel into another. A blue cloudy sky is projected behind them. — Open Lab: *Thrival*, 2024 | Photo by Ry Thiel

The people are coming, 2022 | Photo Credit: Kezia Waters

The Initial Project

HCL supported Carissa Lee in the development and expansion of a performance art piece that centers around the experiences of southern black women. Building on work initially performed at Steppenwolf Theater, Carissa used the HCL Artist in Residency as an opportunity to deepen the narrative, introduce new themes, and expand the scope of the work. Carissa’s research centered around her family archive.

Carissa worked collaboratively with musicians to craft sound moments and soundscapes weaving authentic family narratives into the performance. Through collaboration, exploration, and iteration, the visual component of the performance incorporated set design, costumes, and visual projections.

This project culminated in an Open Lab presentation of Thrival, an improvisational sonic performance where history is folded upon itself to highlight the primal technologies of sound that have carried us through time.

Rip and Repair, 2022 | Photo credit: Anna Johnson

Metastasize, 2021 | Photo credit: Eugene Tang

Love Me Not, 2020

About the Artist

Carissa Lee is a Chicago- and Los Angeles-based performance, sound, and theatrical artist. She earned her BFA in Theater from NYU and MFA in Performance from SAIC. She is a founding member of the art collective Suspended Culture, which has performed at the bell hooks Symposium and received the DCASE Performing Arts Grant. She has exhibited/performed in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Quebec City, with works featured at Elastic Arts, Son of Semele, and Links Hall.

She is currently a High Concept Labs Fellow Artist in Residence and was a 2024 High Concept Labs Artist in Residence and a 2023 Elastic Arts Dark Matter Resident. She has curated exhibitions including All About Love and produced performances in Los Angeles and Chicago. Her writing has appeared in Mental Realness Magazine, and on Gray Area Stories podcast.

The content of her work explores Blackness, intergenerational trauma, family archives, and mental health. She integrates recordings, writing, and Black Southern culture to materialize grief, isolation, and hope.

For more information, visit www.carissapinckney.com.