Sound of the City: Interdisciplinary media artist Nancy Lee, aka Which Nancy, talks Vancouver's opioid crisis, lack of diversity in positions of power, and parties
Based in Chinatown, Lee is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian curator, DJ, educator, \cultural producer, and music-video director
Nancy Lee, aka Which Nancy. Photo by JP Pascual
SOUND OF THE CITY is a series created in partnership by the City of Vancouver and Stir that showcases Vancouver’s diverse music scene, highlighting BIPOC and underrepresented artists and acts. Each edition features a Q&A and a Sound of the City playlist curated by the artist that features some of their favourite local musicians.
Which Nancy
NANCY LEE 李南屏, aka Which Nancy, is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian curator, DJ, educator, interdisciplinary media artist, cultural producer, and music-video director. Lee is a co-founder of Chapel Sound, an electronic-music and art collective supporting emerging artists, and CURRENT Symposium, an intersectional and multidisciplinary initiative featuring artistic and educational programming for women, gender diverse folks, and artists of colour. They also run a small DIY event and production studio in Chinatown, Atelier 254, hosting shows spanning the genres of R n B, rap, techno, ambient, bass, and experimental electronic music.
As a community music consultant, Lee has worked with CreativeBC as a grant coach and outreach facilitator to improve the accessibility of their funding programs. An advocate for the DIY music community, Lee has developed two pilot programs with the City of Vancouver which provided Get-It-Together entrepreneurial capacity-building workshops and micro-grants for artists. Lee’s projects and performances have been showcased at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW, MUTEK Japan, Bass Coast Festival, FUSE at Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Pride, Alberta Electronic Music Conference, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, International Symposium on Electronic Art, and more.
In 2018, they were nominated for YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Art, Cultural & Design. Lee is currently a VR workshop instructor with the IM4 Media Lab at Emily Carr University and the board president of Love Intersections. As a Sundance Institute New Frontier Alumni, Lee is collaborating with Kiran Bhumber on a speculative sci-fi exhibition “UNION”, using 3D scanning, 3D printing, XR, and multi-channel sound and video installation to explore the narrative of two beings discovering their ancestral memories through the longing for touch and the rituals practised in their post-apocalyptic wedding ceremony.
Read about what’s on Lee’s mind these days and listen to their Sound of the City Playlist, below.
Which Nancy’s Playlist
1. 070 Shake - Microdosing
2. MANILA GREY, azel north - Shibuya (feat. azel north)
3. Prado - Gucci Store
4, Tkay Maidza - Shook
5. Eros Taylor - be there
6. Haviah Mighty, Jalen Santoy - Way Too Fast (feat. Jalen Santoy)
7. AUDREY NUNA - damn Right
8. LION BABE - Hot in Herre
9. Channel Tres - skate depot
10. Dizzy Fae - Body Move
11. Sonia Calico, PRINCI - Change, Reset
12. So Loki - QUICK QUICK
13. Rude Nala, ParisPlayedYou - Same Games
14. ernest rareberrg - Secondary Handstand
15. I M U R - Sad Girls Club
16. Senti - Space
17. Eli Muro - Pursuit
18. Fatima, Floating Points - Cinnamon
19. The Roots, Tariq Trotter, Erykah Badu, Eve - You Got Me
20. Potatohead People, De La Soul, Posdnous, Kapok - Baby Got Work
21. Kendra Dias, Mr. Stee, Jub - Be Nice
22. Vita Lioni - The Way You Love Me
23. Rochelle Jordan - ALL ALONG
24. Heroshe - Paranoid
25. Text Chunk, Hood Joplin - Keepflowin’
26. Jade Statues, Audréanne Filion - Jester
27. Spirit Twin, Matt Tecson - Dragonfly (Matt Tecson Remix)
28. Juls, Miraa May, Donae’o - Blessed
29. Adewolf - Danger V3
30. Jonah Yano, Tatsuya Muraoka - shoes
31. Maylee Todd - No Other
How are you feeling about life right now?
Groovy and hot.
How has the pandemic affected your work?
Surprisingly positive. Even though I lost all my gigs, travel opportunities, and events booked at my space, I was able to spend the last year focusing on my own work - the UNION solo exhibition. It was amazing the see the type of work I was able to produce with focused energy, good sleep. and fewer but deeper relationships.
What are you working on right now? Do you have any plans or projects lined up for 2021?
I'm currently doing tours for the last week of the dystopian sci-fi UNION exhibition at Richmond Art Gallery that Kiran Bhumber and I co-created. We spent the entire pandemic working on this project where we have a ritualistic wedding ceremony in year 3000 in order to uncover our ancestral memories. We're hoping to tour this exhibition once travel opens up again. I'm spending the next few months focusing on mentoring artists in the dance-film community with Festival of Recorded Movement. I’m hoping once COVID restriction eases up this month (fingers crossed), I can start hosting film nights and small music events at my space.
Where are you finding solace and comfort?
My studio and in the world-building process of UNION with my collaborators.
What are you most looking forward to once the pandemic passes?
THROWING PARTIES!!! (or just any kind of social gathering)
What song or album has been in your heavy rotation recently and why?
Prado - Gucci Store.
Prado is a freakin' pop icon!
Can you give a shoutout to one of your favourite Vancouver musicians or artists? What about them inspires you?
Kiran Bhumber, my artistic main squeeze. Spending the last year going on a UNION deep dive working with her was incredible. She's not only an amazing musician, composer, educator, and sound designer, she's also so technically ambitious with her vision but so humble at the same time. She gave me the confidence to start teaching VR workshops in 2020 with IM4 Media Lab, and that's been an endlessly rewarding experience.
What would you like to see change in Vancouver?
SAFE AND CLEAN DRUG SUPPLY to deal with the opioid crisis and gang violence-related drug trafficking, more AFFORDABLE HOUSING, and more BLACK, INDIGENOUS, PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN POSITIONS WITH ACTUAL POWER (not that tokenistic sh*t), as executive directors, as lead curators, as business owners, as politicians, as city councillors, as grant jurors, as public-funding-program designers, as city planners, as policy makers, as people who have actual political and financial autonomy to design and implement programs for the communities they are from and serve.
Who is your dream collaborator?
Everyone who I've ever collaborated with are my dream collaborators.
Directed by Nancy Lee.
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