Reincarnation 

Editor: This painting is titled "Reincarnation" by Yoko d’Holbachie, rendered in acrylic. I find it quite dreamlike and unsettling at the same time, with its surreal, almost gothic-kawaii aesthetic. What do you see in this piece, especially given its title? Curator: Well, let's start with the obvious visual cues. We have a mermaid-like figure adorned with horns, sitting upon what appears to be a skeletal fish. She's surrounded by clocks. Immediately, the imagery speaks to cycles – life, death, and rebirth, all common motifs found in mythology and surrealist art. But more than that, I’m interested in thinking about how the artist might be interrogating cyclical trauma. What is repeated in the individual and collective conscious? Editor: Cyclical trauma, that's interesting. I hadn’t considered it in that light. Curator: Think about the layering here. The seemingly innocent, almost childlike, big-eyed figure holds the power of time in her hands, while the skeletal fish underneath serves as a grim reminder of mortality. The eroticism is also evident, which is really the power dynamic when considering who holds agency in representation, especially in mythology where women are either cast as monsters or idealized objects. Do you notice anything else that calls your attention? Editor: The clocks – they suggest a control over temporality, maybe an escape from the constraints of a linear timeline. And all those colors... it's not just death and gloom. It almost feels celebratory. Curator: Precisely! That tension between the grotesque and the beautiful, the horrific and the hopeful – that’s where the work’s critical power lies. The painting may hint to something we overcome repeatedly. In the West we tend to associate progress with linear ideas; could cyclical things point to other ways of constructing the self and society? Editor: That's a lot to think about; thanks for widening my perspective! Now the dreamlike quality makes so much more sense. Curator: Absolutely. It's about seeing beyond the surface and understanding the deeper cultural and historical contexts. The beauty of art is how it encourages these conversations.