(Brooklyn, NY) As one of Tutu’s annual V-Day tradition exhibitions, Doki Doki Tutu’s Delivery Service!! features 9 new media sculptures by Amos Kang and 9 paintings by Yizhi Liu, continuing the gallery’s discussion of the complexion of love beneath a docile, domestic, Asian-centric appearance and implicit critique of politics by emerging international artists with Asia connections. Both artists creates imaginary characters to tell stories of diaspora and self-discovery under the greater backdrop of political and economical upheavals.
Upon entering the gallery, the visitors are greeted by A letter to our daughter, a family tree represented in the form of potatoes growing underground. A potato farm house miniature sits atop with doors ajar, revealing a letter that reads “Dear Daddy, I miss you so much… Mom told me that you only eat potatoes in Russia. Mr. John got me and mom smiley fries from Costco today, here are some for you so you can eat them instead of potatoes. Love, Kim Cho.”
With a poignant and insidiously comical tone, Amos links several 3-D printed sculptures in this exhibition to a fabricated Cho family, who were dispersed from Korea to Idaho during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Kim Cho’s dad, a potato farmer, fails once again here to provide for his family, fleeing to Russia and leaving all the debt to his wife and daughter. Kim’s mom, on the other hand, developed an affair with a married white man, Mr. John, who influenced and Americanized Kim.
Silently accompanying Amos’ rich narrative, Yizhi’s abstract paintings transfer between abstraction and figuration, with characters vaguely assembling pan-Asia anime characters emerging from intuitively moving brushstrokes. Her brushstrokes are fast-paced and clear-cut, rendering a sense of Kungfu fighting frozen in time; other times, softer marks loosely resembling landscape or domestic imageries combine, depicting characters sitting idly in their private ponderation. Yizhi views these characters a form of her inner self, and through the daily practice of automatic drawing/painting her intuition release the energy she carries during periods of hardship in family life and the immigration process. These hardships seem impossible for her explicitness, perhaps due to a fear of exposé and exploitation. Despite, the reduced images allow a glimpse of resilience and immortal innocence.
Amo’s narratives on the unfortunate combination of the Cho family and Mr.John eventually amount to his examination of global consumerism resulted from colonilization, not only from the perspective of the East, but also the West – sitting at the mantel above the fireplace, Bass Super Grand Slam Club chronologically exhibit the life cycle of Mr.John, whose love for fish, originally informed in his early years by a harmless curiosity towards a pet fish at Petco, develops into a full-fledged obsession with fishing. And in his elder years, he consumes the fish burger from McDonald’s and acquire a taste for sushi, made culturally palatable for the American living, just like the aesthetic of these sculptures.
Towards the end of the arrangement of Doki Doki Tutu’s Delivery Service!!, a moving trolley installation parks in front of a large scale painting: the trolley bears paper boxes of belongings from the Cho family expedition.
Various spirits have turned these boxes into castles, extending their blessings to young Kim. Yizhi’s characters gather around a table, lush illuminating grass growing from its surface, ready to share a moment together.
Exhibition Dates
February 14 – April 11, 2025
Curator
Shuang Cai
Artists
Amos Kang
Yizhi Liu
Venue
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn NY 11206
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About Curator
Shuang Cai (b.1999, Beijing)’s curatorial endeavors aim to bring forth the power of interconnectedness and diverse voices across communities. Their art practices focus on logic, interactions, and humor. And they currently shares a studio in Dumbo with LuLyu and Ruichao Jiang (you’re welcome to visit any time). Shuang graduated with duo degrees in Computer Science and Studio Art from Bard College and holds a Master’s from NYU ITP.
About Artists
Yizhi Liu (b.1999, Shenzhen) is a Brooklyn-based painter and creative technology artist. She collects the scattered, subtle, and sometimes dissonant fragments of emotions, then processes, translates, and transforms them into visual expressions. Despite being a native Chinese person, she once scored 5 out 100 in a Chinese test. To her, words are like the tiny living creatures that dance and shift in her imagery. Yizhi holds a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts and a Master’s from NYU ITP.
Amos Kang (b. 1999, New Jersey) is a Brooklyn-based artist. In the form of speculative objects and installations, Kang explores Kawaii: a cultural lexicon embodying the aesthetic of cute, questioning themes of cultural consumption and reproduction. Crafted from synthetic materials and processes like PLA-plastic and 3D printing, he creates anthropomorphized kawaii objects that serve as representations of “asianized” bodies. Kang holds a B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design.
About Gallery
Tutu Gallery is a feline-owned DIY space located in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, founded in July 2019 by Tutu (cat) and her human assistant April Yueyi Zhu. Tutu’s aim is to show art slightly “off the wall”, in the space, and with its friends. Tutu prioritizes immigrants and students with exhibitions and programs.
(text & photo courtesy of Tutu Gallery)
