Living Here

Daieny Chin
Angel's Trumpet, 2024
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Filo Sofi Arts

This work is on loan for the exhibition, Living Here, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, June 20 - December 20, 2025

Growing up in an Evangelical Christian household, Daieny Chin felt a tension between their family’s religious beliefs and the indigenous Korean folktales and myths they heard from their mother. These paintings from their Mythos Unveiled series juxtapose those two ways of understanding the world.
In Angel’s Trumpet they are holding a pigeon. Chin calls it “strange” that pigeons are seen as inherently dirty when they’re part of the same family as doves, which Western culture presents as pure, sanctified birds. “Doves are an important symbol in Christianity, so I wanted to give pigeons the same tenderness.” The artist describes the angel’s trumpet flowers, like the Christian dove, as symbols of rebirth and spiritual connection.