Art

Memory, Yearning, Loss: Piano in BTS’s “HYYH”

Categories Art, BTS, MusicLeave a Comment on Memory, Yearning, Loss: Piano in BTS’s “HYYH”
Promotional image for The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 2, BigHit Music.

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, BTS’s monumental series dedicated to the fragile concept of youth, had its 10th anniversary on April 29, 2025.

The series, comprised of the albums The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 1, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 2 and the compilation album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever, also launched the Bangtan Universe, a fictional narrative woven through the albums’ music videos, but also promotional trailers and short films, and later expanded to include a webtoon, a book, and a collection of notes adding details to the story.

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series marked an evolution for BTS from their hip hop-centred songs and energetic and aggressive delivery to a softer and more poetic sensibility and sound, spearheaded by member SUGA. The piano, which had started to appear in songs like the introspective “Tomorrow” and the jazz-infused “Rain,” from Skool Luv Affair-Special Edition and Dark & Wild, both released in 2014, became more prominent. This pointed to the continuous expansion of their storytelling and musical vocabulary.

Continue reading ➞ Memory, Yearning, Loss: Piano in BTS’s “HYYH”

“F**k the algorithm” – Art, curation and influence in late-stage Internet

Categories Art, BTS, Music2 Comments on “F**k the algorithm” – Art, curation and influence in late-stage Internet
RM at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in a post from May 30, 2022 (Screen capture)

A couple of days ago, RM (Kim Namjoon), the rapper, writer, and leader of BTS, unarchived the entirety of his Instagram history. His posts go back to December 2021, when all BTS members opened their Instagram accounts. In the last several months, RM had, seemingly randomly, “deleted” or archived posts a few or whole chunks at a time.

Continue reading ➞ “F**k the algorithm” – Art, curation and influence in late-stage Internet

The Euphoria of Beauty and the Compulsion for Art

Categories Art, Books, Movies, Music4 Comments on The Euphoria of Beauty and the Compulsion for Art

Note: I wrote this essay over several weeks but wrote the main argument and narrative over the next few hours after the event I describe in the piece. I decided to keep it intact to respect and convey the immediacy of the experience. 

Last night, I cried myself to sleep after seeing a concert. I cried for two hours after it ended, full-body sobs taking over me on the sofa where I had sat to watch the livestream. The sobs overcame me every time I tried to calm myself, close my eyes, and go to sleep—it was, after all, three or four in the morning my time. I had to take a Tylenol, but the crying took over me in the kitchen as I grabbed a cup of water, opened the faucet, and doubled over the counter in pain. 

The sobs did not cease until I forced myself to lay in bed, the tears falling freely on my pillow and my body shaking intermittently from the crying. The sleep somehow came. 

Continue reading ➞ The Euphoria of Beauty and the Compulsion for Art

Tuesday Morning in Suburbia

Categories Art, Life, Mental Health, UncategorizedLeave a Comment on Tuesday Morning in Suburbia

I want to say outrageous things. Like: “I wish I was only consciousness for a little while. No body, no brain, no mind. Only to observe and perceive the universe, from afar, unfeeling.” No mother should say such a thing. The selfishness.

I fantasize about becoming only consciousness for a little while. Also, to leave my bed unmade for a whole day.

I want to descend into the carnivalesque, Rabelais style. Let the excess take over. Like when I was a student and hid in my house for days with dozens of movies, watching one after the other without acknowledging the outside world or its wants from me. Let the body disappear behind the decadence. Leave only the eyes and the ears.

I want to cut my head and body off so I may feel better for a little while. Bottle the consciousness in a clear jar in the meantime. Put it on top of a shelf for when I’m ready to come back. No suburban mom should say such a thing. The madness.

I want to say outrageous things.

Image: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, “The Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” 1559 (Wikiart Public Domain)

RM’s “Indigo”: to be artful is to be human

Categories Art, Music5 Comments on RM’s “Indigo”: to be artful is to be human

“Still, I found myself glancing at the paintings and then looking at them. “The Potato Eaters.” “The Cornfield with a Lark.” “The Ploughed Field at Auvers.” “The Pear Tree.” Within two minutes—and for the first time in three weeks—I was calm, reassured. Reality had been confirmed.”

John Berger, “The Production of the World,” The Sense of Sight

The first time I read that essay, I was in my 20s. I didn’t know it then, but Berger’s words about how, in a moment of profound existential dread, looking at van Gogh’s paintings had helped him find his place in the world again would resonate for the rest of my life. I, too, have found solace in art in countless moments, but more than that, Berger’s words have guided me and comforted me when life felt like it had stopped making sense. They tell me that the emotions we experience when confronted with art are real and worth thinking about and living for. 

Continue reading ➞ RM’s “Indigo”: to be artful is to be human