Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee: The Radical Rural
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Exhibition Abstract
The Radical Rural examines the resurgence of collective farms in New York (primarily in the Hudson Valley) as sites of radical reclamation, challenging colonial frameworks and legacies of private property and agrarian land grabs. The project traces a genealogy from 19th-century abolitionist communities to contemporary BIPOC-led farm initiatives through counter-mapping, ethnographic research, dinner parties, and a short film. The exhibit confronts extractive industrial agricultural models while developing frameworks for a 'rural commons' rooted in racial, climate, and food justice. These emerging agricultural communities represent a system of resistance, offering blueprints for rural spaces anchored in mutual care and regenerative land stewardship within and against capitalist structures. A closing event will highlight contributors mutual aids, farmers, and local organizers.
Biography
Stephanie Kyuyoung Lee is the founder of the Office of Human Resources, a critical design studio that explores the intersection of spatial, racial, and material politics as a liberatory practice. Her current project builds a comparative genealogy of radical ruralism, from early abolitionist communes to social justice-based farms throughout New York. As the Strauch Early Career Fellow at Cornell University, Lee's teaching and research focus on utopian agrarian projects, botanical histories, and rural commons as topics of design-research. Previously, she was awarded the inaugural Architecture Fellowship at Bard College and the 2020 Fellow for the Future Architecture Platform. Before joining Bard, Lee worked with various offices and artist studios in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and New York. She participated in residencies including the Arts Center Residency supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Architecture Residency at Art Omi. She has exhibited her work at Haus der Architektur in Graz, Austria, Bard College, and citygroup gallery in New York City. Her writings and interviews have been published in Koozarch, The Funambulist, PLAT, and Archifutures (dpr-barcelona, 2020).
Closing Event
Friday, March 21, 5:30–7:30 p.m., Milstein Hall Dome
"OPEN ALTAR" is a mini-symposium of presentations, workshops, and discussions on rural local networks. Organizers (from Sweet Freedom Farm, Mumbet's Freedom Farm, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Soil Health Laboratory) and participants engage in reflective practices, highlighting agriculture, identity politics, and food justice. Food catered by Ixi's Arepas. Please bring objects to contribute to the community altar.
