afternoon tiptoe & morning pink tail
Afternoon Tiptoe & Morning Pink Tail brings together two worlds that sit side by side yet feel emotionally distant — one unfolding in an afternoon hallway, the other looking out from a morning storm drain. Each world carries its own atmosphere, shaped by longing, alienation, aspiration, and the quiet, stubborn wish to exist differently from what the surrounding environment expects.
This show reflects the different ways we respond to the pressures and norms around us. One world drifts toward softness, humor, and a kind of gentle confidence — a way of moving that doesn’t try to match the pace of others. The other world grows complicated and melancholic, echoing the uneasiness of moving through structures that feel rigid, demanding, or indifferent to who we are.
Even with these contrasts, the two worlds resonate with each other. They share the feeling of being slightly out of place, slightly out of sync, yet still insisting on existing in our own rhythm. They hold a bittersweet mix of nostalgia, rebellion, awkwardness, and sincerity — a recognition that not fitting neatly can be its own form of clarity.
With Afternoon Tiptoe & Morning Pink Tail, we invite you to step between the hallway and the storm drain, to drift in and out of these moods, and to sense the tender, uneasy, and hopeful ways we continue to shape our place in the world.
Artist Statement
This project continues my exploration of beauty, discomfort, and femininity, and the ways societal expectations shape desire. The rat–human hybrid girl, along with the space she inhabits, represents the tension of existing within structures that were never built for people like her—or me. The rat embodies life beneath human systems: present, surviving, yet unwelcome. The human form carries the weight of navigating patriarchy, capitalism, and rigid norms of femininity, creating a hybrid that negotiates the pull between belonging and resistance.
The dress she wears, which is from a subculture fashion called Lolita, functions as a metaphor for self-directed desire, rejecting mainstream definitions of acceptable femininity while embracing excess, softness, and maximal expression. The figure’s uncanny presence reflects the friction between wanting to escape and the gravitational pull of societal structures. Through this work, I explore identity at the margins, resistance within constraint, and the complex negotiation of selfhood under systems that seek to define who we can be.