Fingers poking through peep holes, animals lounging comfortably, innumerable martini cocktails, and an abundance of luscious fruit are only but a few of the recurring motifs in GaHee Park\u2019s surreal painted scenes. Her work is elegant and humorous, and it is deceptively complex. Undeniably, there is a seeming effortlessness to her paintings\u200a\u2014\u200awhich she achieves by working obsessively. It takes her several weeks to complete a single painting. Before committing to a canvas, she maps and sorts out the composition of each piece via multiple preparatory drawings. This methodology allows her to establish the different layers of meaning that will compose the image, juxtaposing dissonant symbols within a single cohesive surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decadent food coexists alongside all types of insects and animals; this never seems to bother the human figures, who are generally enthralled in the midst of an action: the sweetness of a kiss, the intensity of a look, the delight of a touch. Park\u2019s work often fractures spatial and temporal dimensions, utilizing devices such as reflections, shadows, or repetitions that she borrows from cinematic strategies. The overall effect transports the viewer into an imaginary setting filled with decadence and appetite, but also suspense and mystery. Park\u2019s paintings seem to arise from her innermost self; they are deeply subliminal and always enigmatic. Through a palette of pastel colours, she combines shattered perspectives to weave into a unified and compelling whole a patchwork of contradictory mental states: desire exists alongside repulsion, uneasiness lurks behind tranquillity, suspicion creeps into trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through her work, Park acknowledges that living in today\u2019s world implies living amidst interchanging and complex emotional and psychological states. Our most intense desires can carry the source of our deepest anxiety. Existing as a woman\u200a\u2014\u200aand certainly as an Asian woman in the West\u200a\u2014\u200ainvolves an unfair compromise whereby being visible is often equated with being desired and despised all at once: to be seen is to be targeted. In turn, being invisible might entail a certain safety and a respite from hostilities. But within the competitive nature of capitalist society, one can\u2019t move ahead without being seen. And in that fact lies the meticulous balancing act of navigating white and patriarchal spaces: taking calculated turns in and out of perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n