HELLO!
Jae Rhim Lee is a transdisciplinary artist, designer, and entrepreneur. She holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wellesley College and is the founder and CEO of funeral startup Coeio, Inc.
JR’s work reimagines basic life systems and proposes new models for how we eat, urinate/defecate, sleep, live, and die. A bed made of 10 individually-molded wooden splints that form a hard, yet comfortable surface. A diet designed to transform urine into a more ideal nutrient solution for plants (accompanied by a urine processor, hydroponic garden, and bed.) A surplus, formaldehyde-laden FEMA trailer converted into a model of sustainable disaster response. A burial suit infused with mushroom mycelia and bacteria that facilitates the decomposition of the body, cleans toxins, and helps plants grow. For each new work, JR strategically and pragmatically deploys familiar and new methodologies from various disciplines, often combining them in new ways. She is discipline-agnostic and regards each method equally as a tool in her practice, including business, permaculture, architecture, science (forensics, mycology, biology), social psychology, federal disaster recovery, design thinking, and contemporary art practice,