Operating as Baby Reni, Irene Ha developed her creative universe into a brand based on Systemic collaboration and the unique aesthetic of a generation ‘raised’ by the internet.  Channeling the Pokemon character Pikachu – who seems cute and pet-able, until it reminds you of its powerful thunderbolt attack – the artist tackles prejudices about her Asianness by creating and connecting.In between West and East, she developed and represents her own counterculture, existing of a worldwide community of like-minded souls she encountered in URL and IRL. Here, complex layers of emotion unfold into simplified, grotesque imagery which motivates her to seek authenticity in bootlegging the bootleg, memeing the meme.

Baby Reni is a multidisciplinary persona: she can be anything she wants to be, just like the internet told her. Often she finds herself fulfilling the roles of an activist, matchmaker or cloth designer…seeking for a collective feeling of ‘care’ by multiplying and spreading the scarf like a disease (or… rather, the scarf will protect you from the disease). From serial accessories to one off art pieces, in Ha’s universe it’s all equally important and for sale in her webshop (babyreni.nl) and merged into one fluid body of work.