It’s a bright, joyful scene of summery vibes, spinning ice creams, swan floats and shimmering water. Your eye is drawn to a beautiful figure with long legs, bunny ears and a crown: a princess. And then the thorns start sprouting from her body.

This is White Rose, the latest 3D animation work from Auckland-based Korean-New Zealand artist Hye Rim Lee, created as part of SCAPE Public Art Season 2022. It is also the latest work to feature Hye Rim’s animated character, TOKI, who has been part of Hye Rim’s practice since 2002.

On the surface, White Rose is a fun, frivolous take on cyber culture – a tongue-in-cheek look at female representation and the male gaze of character design. And it is, but it’s much more, too. TOKI’s journey through these hyper-coloured dreamscapes is a story of escapism and transformation; the story of Hye Rim’s own experiences of grief and the search for identity.

As a Korean-born artist living in New Zealand, moving to New York, and finally back to New Zealand, shifting identities and finding a place in the world is an important theme to Hye Rim. TOKI’s shapeshifting throughout the animation – from princess to queen to rose queen – is an exploration of these themes, but it’s also a story of trying to escape the pain of loss.

White Rose is a follow-up to Hye Rim’s previous 3D animation work, Black Rose (2021). Both touch on the themes of grief and lost love, drawing on Hye Rim’s personal experience, but while Black Rose was darker, there is a sense of hopefulness to the newer work.

“The rose queen’s thorns are pain, but also protection,” Hye Rim says. “TOKI is searching for immortality, an escape from her pain, but in White Rose she is starting to find beauty in sadness. In Korea, white is symbolic of death but also purity, new beginnings and rebirth.”

The work is vibrant, visually striking and impossible to forget. It is available to view during the SCAPE Public Art Season 2022, on now until Sunday 29 January 2023.

scapepublicart.org.nz