Painting Unsettled

2022
acrylic, marker, oil pastel on canvas
200 x 190 cm
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This series assembles humanoid figures derived from fashion dummies and androids into group portraits, in which their hollow plastic forms are given a sense of autonomy and expression. Set before colorful backdrops that resemble theatrical showcases, the all-female mannequins present static gestures and postures with their standardized composite body parts. The paintings highlight the analogy and contrast between low-tech fashion dummies—as radically simplified, fragmented templates of physical female ‘beauty’—and high-tech humanoid robots, which often appear in the shape of an equally idealized female, animated by AI.

Both kinds of artificial bodies reflect cultural norms and exist to fulfill the purposes ascribed to them by their creators. The story of the lovely and lovable, but superhuman or demonic machine-woman has a long tradition in both Western and Eastern cultures, with tales like those of Pygmalion or E.T.A. Hoffmann’s mechanical puppet Olimpia still resonating in modern cinema, science fiction, and video games. These works aim to give the stage to those mechanical subjects, allowing them a more self-assertive, confrontational performance, while emphasizing their physical presence and individuality through the material skin of painting.

2022
acrylic, marker, oil pastel on canvas
220 x 200 cm
__________________

This series assembles humanoid figures derived from fashion dummies and androids into group portraits, in which their hollow plastic forms are given a sense of autonomy and expression. Set before colorful backdrops that resemble theatrical showcases, the all-female mannequins present static gestures and postures with their standardized composite body parts. The paintings highlight the analogy and contrast between low-tech fashion dummies—as radically simplified, fragmented templates of physical female ‘beauty’—and high-tech humanoid robots, which often appear in the shape of an equally idealized female, animated by AI.

Both kinds of artificial bodies reflect cultural norms and exist to fulfill the purposes ascribed to them by their creators. The story of the lovely and lovable, but superhuman or demonic machine-woman has a long tradition in both Western and Eastern cultures, with tales like those of Pygmalion or E.T.A. Hoffmann’s mechanical puppet Olimpia still resonating in modern cinema, science fiction, and video games. These works aim to give the stage to those mechanical subjects, allowing them a more self-assertive, confrontational performance, while emphasizing their physical presence and individuality through the material skin of painting.