Was there a leather daddy back in the 1800s working in the mines? “Probably not.
Oscar yi Hou
Limited edition
Edition of 30Shipping within 2 weeks
In this new limited edition print, Oscar yi Hou reimagines Bruce Springsteen's iconic Born in the U.S.A. album cover, infusing it with queer sensuality.
Our first collaboration with Oscar, Coolieisms, aka: Born In The USA (Go And Kill The Yellow Man), is a translation of the original oil painting from his ongoing Coolieisms series. The series title references a 19th-century slur historically used to degrade exploited Chinese railroad labourers. Through this body of work, Oscar explores East Asian queer experiences in America, blending American pop culture, queer masculinities, kink iconography, and references to both ancient and contemporary Asian art and culture.
In his take on the cover, Oscar replaces the all-American man with a figure dressed in leather fetish gear. Across the stripes of the flag, lyrics from Bruce Springsteen's original song – "go and kill the yellow man" – are layered, referencing US imperialism and its violent history in Asia.
The edition is rich with symbolic detail, from the figure's small gold hoop – mirroring the artist's piercing – to a glitter-embellished navy handkerchief, nodding to the queer practice of 'flagging' which originated in 1970s gay male and BDSM communities as a code to communicate your sexual preferences. To embellish these details, printers at Make-Ready applied a dynamic silkscreen high-gloss varnish to specific areas and used a dazzling glitter coating to highlight the stars of the US flag on the navy handkerchief.
Oscar yi Hou1 collaborationOscar yi Hou’s magnetic oil paintings are dripping in iconography and unadulterated queer sensuality. Cowboys, sailors and leather daddies flaunt their rippling muscles, adorned with an endless stream of East Asian motifs and visual nods to Americana. This shimmering mix of symbolism is rooted in (but not limited to) Oscar’s personal experiences. Born in Liverpool, England, to Chinese immigrants, he then moved across the Atlantic in the early 2020s to study his BA at Columbia University in New York City, where he’s been based since. His series Coolieisms dives into Asian American history, taking its name from a 19th-century slur originally used to degrade exploited Chinese railroad labourers. The ongoing series is a pastiche of American pop culture, queer masculinities, kink iconography, and references to ancient and contemporary Asian art and culture. The paintings in the series emanate a sense of desire and erotics, while also marking the violence, both past and present, that comes wrapped in these marginalised identities.
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