EARTHLINGS NO.2 STUDY 2022

Curator: Looking at this tender image, we have Soey Milk’s "EARTHLINGS NO.2 STUDY" from 2022, a drawing rendered with exquisite line work. Editor: My first impression is one of incredible fragility and intimacy. The sheer amount of delicate detail, all in pencil, really focuses my attention on the surface of the paper itself. Curator: Absolutely. It’s interesting how Milk deploys such traditional methods - the study of the human form through drawing- yet simultaneously positions it in dialogue with contemporary figurations of the nude and the portrait. Do you think this pushes the drawing into novel conceptual territory? Editor: Well, certainly the lines denote care, labour and time; the medium's impact speaks to more than its representational content. Each line seems intentionally and precisely placed—that is evident to me in every part of the work. The material is humble but it becomes highly evocative. What do you make of the composition? Curator: It definitely enhances that sense of closeness you mentioned. The figures are intertwined and fill the frame, leaving the negative space to suggest more than it states explicitly. The title "EARTHLINGS" could perhaps speak to the universal, shared human experience through interpersonal contact. It appears this act in question defies period or time frame because, quite frankly, not enough context exists to identify a when or where. Editor: I see the work speaking beyond temporality by emphasizing raw, tangible production: labor-intensive lines rendering touchable and deeply private experience. It brings our focus to the conditions by which visual culture takes form—which, here, requires almost invisible levels of craftsmanship. It becomes very special. Curator: A fantastic way to sum it up. Milk truly challenges us to reconsider the role of simplicity in generating powerful emotion and profound observation through form, figures and meaning, creating a strong connection to this tender and intricate tableau. Editor: Indeed. By paying attention to both its making and its presentation, "EARTHLINGS NO.2 STUDY" transforms commonplace materials into vessels that hold tenderness, care and even intimacy in our modern visual world.