Leo Gallery Hong Kong | Dylan Doe: The Raft

Leo Gallery Hong Kong is pleased to present The Raft, a solo exhibition by British artist Dylan Doe. Taking the raft as metaphor, Doe expands “raft” from a life-saving device adrift at sea into a structural condition that temporarily underpins, supports, and shapes form in the process of becoming. Throughout this series, human figures and plant forms intertwine in states of co-growth.

In this body of work, fragmented figures and mutating plant forms emerge within carefully constructed environments. Limbs are braced, stems are supported, bodies are partially fused with external frameworks. The title The Raft carries a quiet tension. “The Raft” suggests survival and suspension, a structure that keeps one afloat when solid ground is absent. It also evokes a base, like those used in 3D printing where delicate forms require temporary supports. In Doe’s works, these rafts do not disappear once their task is complete. They remain, in fact merge with the figures they sustain, becoming part of their anatomy.

The works draw upon Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley’s proposition in Are We Human? that “humans have always been extended and reshaped by their environments and technologies.”  We believe we use objects, yet we are quietly reconfigured by them. Today, as we rely on technology to maintain order, we are simultaneously reshaped within that very order. This dual condition is reflected in Byung-Chul Han’s Non-Things, in which he writes of the comfort objects of childhood that have now extended into adulthood. The portable screen becomes a “new” raft, steadying anxiety while shaping our posture and perception. The boundary between the individual and the structure gradually dissolves through habitual use.

A speculative atmosphere runs through the work. Figures and plant life are cultivated within controlled environments, staged as though in a laboratory, museum diorama, or photographic set. They are sustained, observed, and maintained. The very mechanisms that would traditionally disappear after serving their purpose remain embedded, binding structure and organism into a single entity.

Doe’s paintings originate in unconscious drawing sessions. Initial marks are laid onto raw canvas before gradually accumulating through layers of pigment, glazes, and selectively primed surfaces. Earlier gestures persist beneath later interventions, leaving residues of process visible. Structure is therefore not only depicted; it is enacted. The underlying framework of the painting mirrors the conceptual scaffolding within the image. In The Raft, organic forms are held in a state of delicate balance, ultimately reflecting a phenomenon. When structure becomes the prerequisite of existence, we find ourselves poised between reliance and dependency, standing upon our own rafts.