Andamiro 2017

Soey Milk created "Andamiro" as a graphite drawing, though the date is unknown. The image is striking and seems to fuse different cultural references, but is it honoring them? Or is it using them to exoticize the subject? The woman’s headpiece seems to derive from Korean culture; the text on her thigh from South Asia. And yet, the image is highly sexualized. In the Western art tradition, the nude has often been a way of elevating the subject to the realm of high art, but, here, the effect is ambiguous. Was it made to challenge Western viewers by confronting them with cultural symbols that have been misused? Or does it play into the historical tradition of Western artists appropriating non-Western cultures? The institutional context is crucial here. Where was this work shown? What was the artist trying to say? These are some of the questions a historian of art might ask.