Self Portrait with Hotdog
Oil on vinyl coated cardboard, hand cut
Painted with a needle
4.5 × 4 cm
This miniature painting is created to feel like a rare and expensive stone. At only 4.5 × 4 cm, it carries the energy of something precious that must be held in the palm with care. The scale is intentional. B Ling compresses humour, sensuality and sovereignty into a work small enough to feel like a relic.
The surface is vinyl coated cardboard, cut by the artist into a Mooch ear silhouette. This choice comes from her fascination with Picasso’s oil works on cardboard. Rather than copying the history, she questions it. Where did his cardboard come from. What did it once carry. How desperate was he to paint that he used whatever material he could find.
Through this curiosity she discovered a feeling she describes as painting on air. Because of the tiny spaces within the corrugated cardboard, the pigment hovers slightly above the surface. The sensation is light, hollow and buoyant. It gives the impression that the image is floating rather than resting.
The portrait shows B Ling gently caressing a hotdog. It is humorous, tender and completely self aware. It turns an everyday object into an emotional symbol. It speaks about desire, pleasure and the freedom to treat the ridiculous with seriousness and the serious with softness.
The work is painted using a needle rather than a brush. Each stroke becomes a puncture, a stitch, a micro gesture of absolute intention. This slow method intensifies the jewel like quality. Nothing is rushed. Every mark is deliberate.
Within the Mooch Museum, this piece acts as a tiny portal into the artist’s mythology. A study of pleasure, ingenuity and personal sovereignty. Miniature in size, immense in presence.
Self Portrait with Hotdog
Oil on vinyl coated cardboard, hand cut
Painted with a needle
4.5 × 4 cm
This miniature painting is created to feel like a rare and expensive stone. At only 4.5 × 4 cm, it carries the energy of something precious that must be held in the palm with care. The scale is intentional. B Ling compresses humour, sensuality and sovereignty into a work small enough to feel like a relic.
The surface is vinyl coated cardboard, cut by the artist into a Mooch ear silhouette. This choice comes from her fascination with Picasso’s oil works on cardboard. Rather than copying the history, she questions it. Where did his cardboard come from. What did it once carry. How desperate was he to paint that he used whatever material he could find.
Through this curiosity she discovered a feeling she describes as painting on air. Because of the tiny spaces within the corrugated cardboard, the pigment hovers slightly above the surface. The sensation is light, hollow and buoyant. It gives the impression that the image is floating rather than resting.
The portrait shows B Ling gently caressing a hotdog. It is humorous, tender and completely self aware. It turns an everyday object into an emotional symbol. It speaks about desire, pleasure and the freedom to treat the ridiculous with seriousness and the serious with softness.
The work is painted using a needle rather than a brush. Each stroke becomes a puncture, a stitch, a micro gesture of absolute intention. This slow method intensifies the jewel like quality. Nothing is rushed. Every mark is deliberate.
Within the Mooch Museum, this piece acts as a tiny portal into the artist’s mythology. A study of pleasure, ingenuity and personal sovereignty. Miniature in size, immense in presence.
