Gigi Mills

High Tide

2022

The medium of choice for Do Byung-Kyu, born in Cheonan, Korea, is dolls: they are both his conceptions and his physical expression. At the same time dolls are also the perfect tool for communicating the artist’s inner self. Expressing himself by means of dolls liberates Do from the restrictions of the mundane world. By embodying in the form of dolls his actions and thoughts, dreams and desires, and even the instincts lying in the depths of the subconscious, he transcends the secular boundaries. Dolls are his alter ego, his other self that he can construct precisely the way he wants. Sublimating the experiences and memories from his youth into various subjects of desire, Do uses dolls to paint a descriptive picture of the ambiguous feelings of contradictions from his childhood when he would abuse and kill a plaything, for example a frog, then bury the body in solemn mourning over its death. These sexual or violent games from his childhood are not likely to be limited to Do’s experiences alone. Most of us can vaguely remember indulging in sadistic acts of sexual love against a doll. Rising above a child’s simple curiosity, it is an intuitive game of the senses we play by ourselves. In a number of Do’s paintings, sticky liquid can be observed dripping down a doll’s face. This brings back recollections of the life inside our mothers’ womb where we were also enveloped by mucous waters, like the amniotic fluid. It refuses contact with the anything, and nothing wants to touch it either. The shape of such a mucous liquid is a protective layer sheltering the intrinsic identity and desires of man. It is also a substitution that satisfies the ego’s instincts otherwise suppressed by social norms. The dolls’ eyes...

Leign Wen’s works reflect her personal and cultural histories. Having grown up on the island of Taiwan, she has a deep affinity for the elemental power of water and the forces of nat...

"Day(')s End (Funeral Pyre)" features hues of purple, blue, green, yellow and orange. It is a stretched and framed work on paper. Andrew Herzog is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary...

Fleurs by Hugues Pissarro dit Pomié (b. 1935) Oil and pastel on card 26.5 x 17.8 cm (10 ³/₈ x 7 inches) Signed lower left H. Claude Pissarro and dated 1993 lower right This work is ...