FUTURE LIVES
2023. 03.16. - 2023. 05. 13.
Australian artist duo DABSMYLA's first solo exhibition in Korea will be showcased at Space Fountain. Dabs (b.1978~) and Myla (b.1980~) create a fantasy world featuring nature and various characters based on their experiences. The canvas, filled with colorful flowers and trees as if unveiling a tropical jungle, leads us to a utopia beyond reality. In particular, showing the three-dimensional space with smooth and flat surface landscapes and gradation techniques are the key elements of maximizing the immersive and surreal experience. This exhibition <Future Lives> hopes to share the message of hope and co-existence through a virtual space where mysterious characters live, apart from our reality of disease, violence, and extreme conflicts. Several elements make DABSMYLA's work unique, such as its scenery and character, its composition, which is flat and cubic, and the perspective from which to observe all of these. The artist creates a virtual space and tells a story of life with a variety of characters instead of showing realistic figures. The world in the landscape freely crosses between a virtual world and reality, becoming a fantastical space where lives continue beyond the two-dimensional flats. The various characters and objects on the canvas are filled with beautiful flowers and dense forest, which captures viewers' attention. The anthropomorphic characters watching each other while walking through the forest holding flowers are an essential medium to express the joys and sorrows of life. DABSMYLA shows another world that goes beyond reality through various characters. As imaginary friends and family representing life, DM's characters break down the boundaries between life and art and create a unique space where new fables are made. The characters of mushrooms, strawberries, and raccoons occupy many scenes. The characters with intense colors and cute appearances are the primary medium representing diverse emotions that guide the viewers to investigate the hidden aspects of their own lives. As the title implies, <Future Lives> encloses the artists' desires to deliver a hopeful vision for the present and future. A character looking into the far distance, who seems to be desiring something, is also a portrait of us, the viewers dreaming of a hopeful tomorrow. Also, the two works of DABSMYLA are <Most Days>, in which animal characters walk through the forest with fully bloomed flowers on a bright day, and <Some Days>, in which walking in the dark forest holding withered flowers, are connecting with our emotions that we feel every day. As if watching a scene from Aesop's fables, the artist creates a hybrid creature by breathing life into daily objects. Amid full blooming flowers, the characters innocently looking at a viewer reminds them of lost memories and emotions and guides the viewers to look at life differently. The main feature of DABSMYLA's work is the flowers and trees that cover the entire canvas. The artists depict the vibrant, colorful flowers and trees smoothly. The shapes of flowers and plants seem familiar, filling the canvas flatly. Nonetheless, the artist places the flowers and plants based on a perspective and colors the background with a gradation which provides an effect of a sense of immersion, as if the viewers are sucking into the canvas. While the artists describe the scenery as a two-dimensional flat painting, on the other hand, they arrange the flowers and plants with layers and allow a sense of space with colors on the canvas. It eventually leads us into the third space, where things seem realistic but not reality. The composition creates the same effect as creating a background and arranging objects as a movie set. As if a camera, an aspect of zoom-in and zoom-out creates the effect of tension and connectivity, a crucial factor in drawing attention to the work. Besides, the forest and landscape surround us in a panorama way, depicted from a high place, and eventually create a three-dimensional space on a gigantic scale. Alongside this, the characters radiate positive energy, and unique objects capture our attention and continuously develop narratives. This exhibition offers a meaningful opportunity to newly recognize the present and future through the work of DABSMYLA, who produces a dreamy space where the vast nature and human beings are interconnected in the contemporary visual languages.
DABSMYLA
댑스마일라
Australian artist duo DABSMYLA work together to share design and artistic energy. While studying illustration at university, the artists met and began working together, sharing their ideas to broaden their creative perspectives. DABSMYLA grew up heavily influenced by graffiti over the decade from the mid-1980s. Artists who continued graffiti on city walls expanded their artistic world by freely crossing between large murals and canvas works. In 2009, DABSMYLA moved to Los Angeles, where "warm weather, palm trees, and delicious donuts" are located, and is active on the art scene worldwide today. DABSMYLA developed their work by organizing their experiences into a single space with various characters and stories. They describe their work as a 'balance of sweetness and sourness.' The different personalities of the two artists complement each other and develop into harmonious styles. Things and characters in the work, the location and colors of each object, and how the view is created are the factors that make their work exceptional. Various characters and objects, like treasure hunts, are hidden on the dense screen of flowers and trees, inviting viewers to keep looking. DABSMYLA creates a background like a movie set and arranges objects, where objects are zoomed in and out like a camera, creating tension and connectivity in the work.
Furthermore, the overall space is implemented as panoramic, with DABSYMYLA's fantastical forests and landscapes surrounding us. At the same time, ultra-small characters and ingenious objects are created to catch our eye. DABSMYLA create a new narrative that interconnects huge landscapes and small objects through various points of view, composition, and a wide range of colors, creating an immersive and dynamic space where audiences and paintings become one.
