The First Face of Post-Vanitas

Lucky Draw, and the Crowned Skull that Wept

— Jiya Lim, Maison Philosophe, Busan 2025

My first work was not an experiment.

It was a declaration.

In Lucky Draw, a skull appears —

wearing a crown, shedding a tear.

A skull is a symbol of death.

A crown is a symbol of power.

But a tear belongs to neither.

It is proof of being alive.

By placing these three into a single face,

death ceased to be an ending,

and power ceased to be domination.

What emerged was something else entirely:

a being that endures dignity.

From that moment, the language was sealed.

Not as a concept, but as a structure:

destruction,

restoration,

golden testimony.

I did not choose this image.

It arrived already whole,

as if it had been waiting for a name.

Post-Vanitas did not begin as a movement.

It began as a face that could not stop crying.

Concept and term “Post-Vanitas Era” created by Jiya Lim, Maison Philosophe, Busan (2025).

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