Park’s Escapism

Fashion x Art Edit #11

Recently, I was scrolling on Instagram (yes, I know, nothing new under the sun), and I stumbled upon a post by one of my friends, Alex Bass of Salon 21, who posted an artwork by GaHee Park.

After browsing the website of Galerie Perrotin, which represents the Korean artist, I was struck by the piece Half Asleep Night (2022), referencing several classical elements from the naive painting style of the Douanier Rousseau to the surrealist details of Dali, with the ants and the eyes in the glasses. If the title of the painting hints to a literal interpretation of the painting where the lovers seem to be half asleep, one eye closed and another put in the drinking glasses, the details convey a more complex message.

In Dali’s terms, the ants refer to decay and the impermanence of life, and of fleeting moments. Additionally, they are a reference to sexual desire, a theme that is complexified by the deliberate uncertainty around the gender of the second lover in the embrace. The front one clearly appears to be a woman, but the second one could be either, a fact reinforced by the difficulty (even impossibility) in assigning to whom the three hands visible clearly belong to.

The overtly sexual aspect is disguised in the simple settings and the references to still life paintings, here, a white lily symbolizing purity and fertility, as well as the overwhelming flatness of the canvas. Both allow the viewer to extract the scene from a definite moment and place in time and allow the artist to make a point about the human condition in general. This painting inspired a genderless look characterized by soft pastel colors and timeless pieces.