‘The Dreamtime’ series by So Yoon Lym is a collection of paintings of hyperrealistic braided hairstyles.
The name of the series is a reference to a European coined term to describe the pre-colonial aboriginal Australian way of life and viewpoint of the world. The acrylic paintings were inspired by the artist's time working as a teacher in a high school where she photographed students. So Yoon Lym used the name of this series and braids to draw parallels between immigrant culture in America and aboriginal existence.
"The histories of my students as well as myself is such that we are all connected in that most of our ancestors did not originate from Europe. And so, in my representation of these hair and braid patterns, I am referencing patterns that are unique to an urban and often immigrant culture in America that in my imagination exists in very much in a planetary, aboriginal existence, with all the layers and references to immigration, migration, displacement, segregation and racism."
(Osh via What’s Culture?)
