Scarred Faces, Burnt Feet: Jim Dine Reflects on Growth Through Pinocchio
Creatrip Team
a month ago
A solo exhibition by 91-year-old American pop artist Jim Dine, "My Words & Pinocchio," is on view at PiB Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, showing 12 works including paintings, sculptures and charcoal poem-drawings. A large 180 cm Pinocchio sculpture titled "Liar" greets visitors alongside paintings that show wounded or distorted Pinocchios — burnt legs, crushed faces and other marks of suffering. Dine, long fascinated by Pinocchio, sees the wooden boy not as Disney’s cartoon but as a symbol of human struggle and growth, a narrative of trials that lead to becoming human and even tied to Christian themes. The exhibition includes recent Pinocchio works and wall drawings, and Dine’s charcoal poetry that describes carrying Pinocchio since childhood. Dine, a 1950s New York pop art figure who later focused on drawing, has shown in Korea before and installed a 9 m public Pinocchio sculpture in Busan in 2013. The show runs through July 4.
