Blood Solo 2017

Curator: At first glance, there's a stark vulnerability emanating from this portrait. Editor: Today we are looking at Soey Milk's "Blood Solo" created in 2017. The contemporary drawing, skillfully executed in pencil, presents the artist's self-portrait in a nude figuration. Curator: The strings, cords, or possible umbilicals crisscrossing the figure immediately grab my attention. There’s something primal about these ties. Perhaps they represent connectedness and our rootedness in shared narratives. Editor: Absolutely, the almost ceremonial or ritualistic arrangements that drape across her body can also be understood within the context of body art as a way to reclaim and reconfigure identity, especially against societal and cultural projections of East Asian women. Curator: I wonder if that little embroidered pouch has significance. Notice the detailing, the clear and concise stitching. Those things must take care and time. This emphasis might be placed to remind viewers of the hidden cultural treasures of lived experience. Editor: The choice of the word "Blood" in the title strikes me as deeply purposeful, it pushes us to question what might not be immediately visible here and underscores the painful legacies of violence against the body, specifically female bodies throughout history. And even while the image could be read as celebratory of female autonomy, the choice of medium suggests that this is very much a work in progress. The ephemeral and provisional marks reflect something provisional that resists definition. Curator: So it is very much that which has no definite conclusion, constantly adapting according to perspective and position. As the subject looks beyond her situation and state, one can ask if she might just be beginning. This feels empowering given its visual language is so intertwined and bound to something so fragile. Editor: Exactly! As she looks hopefully toward the future with eyes closed shut to the present, what she dreams is of liberation, or the future state. We are invited, then, to ponder her potential narratives rather than imposing one fixed interpretation on her. Curator: What you see here is but a fleeting capture of something beyond time and place! So it ends as it begins, never definite. Editor: Indeed, through her deft skill, Milk's piece provokes thoughtful reflections about cultural inheritance, personal experiences, and embodied resistance, resonating with audiences in layered and multifaceted ways.