Maia Ruth Lee, LABYRINTH

Maia Ruth Lee: My name is Maia Ruth Lee. I'm an artist based here in New York. My background is Korean, but I grew up in Nepal, and then I immigrated to the US in 2011.

Narrator: Lee calls these metal objects glyphs, suggesting a kind of pictorial language.

Maia Ruth Lee: I think altogether I've made probably over 100 pieces, and I've shown them in different iterations, some a more literal alphabet system, some more related to symbols, and signs, and astrology, perhaps.

I think language was always a part of my life. My parents are linguists, and their job was to translate the Bible into Sherpa, which is one of the very many languages in Nepal.

The idea of translating not just a language, but also a philosophy, and also culturally—what does that mean? It was always something that was brewing in my mind.

I wanted to come away from the idea that these were more linguistical forms to them being more objects of purpose, and objects that carried a lot more meaning than just a phonetic sound or a meaning. But something a little deeper than that. So I called them tools for self-protection. So there’s a bit of a spiritual layer to some of these pieces.