"The central concern of my ongoing research and practice is how to create a contemplative space where cultural dynamism can be felt as togetherness or belonging, without being grounded in homogeneity. Drawing from my family's history of migration and displacement, and taking cues from cultural critic Edward Said’s discussion of  ‘connections between things’ and ‘contrapuntal’ relations, I seek different rhythms, contours, and experiences as coexisting, sympathetic, and reconfigured. I want to explore distinctive cultural spaces and the life of particular communities that allow for something shared, both within and beyond existing national and geographic boundaries."

Rozana Lee is an artist based in Auckland, of Indonesian-Chinese heritage. She holds an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts. Her practice explores the way global histories and cultural identities are woven into textile aesthetics, production and trade. Her chosen method of drawing using a Tjanting, traditional pen-like tool for applying hot wax onto the fabric speaks about her Indonesian cultural heritage. Recent exhibitions/projects include Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania, Christchurch Art Gallery (2020-2022), Project 2020: Space as Substance, Auckland Art Fair (2020), Future Flowering, Play_Station (2020), Reconfigure(d), Guangzhou, China (2019), and Two Oceans at Once, St Paul St Gallery (2019). Lee is a finalist in a number of New Zealand art awards: The Wallace Art Awards (2019, 2018), Parkin Drawing Prize (2019, 2016), Walker & Hall Waiheke Art Awards (2017, 2016), and Molly Morpeth Canaday Award (2017, 2015). She was the joint winner of People Choice Award for Estuary Art and Ecology Prize 2018 and in second place for Henrietta & Lola Anne Tunbridge Water Colour Scholarship Award 2018. Lee attended two artist residencies in Asia: Instinc Singapore (March, 2016) and Making Space, Guangzhou, China (May, 2019).