The Alienist
2021-22, ink, 18” x 24”This is a collection of eight illustrations and a set of installations based on the novel of the same name, Caleb Carr's The Alienist.
The story takes place in New York in 1896. At that time, New York was booming, with the great progress of technology on the one hand and the widening gap between the rich and the poor on the other. A serial killer brutally kills and mutilates boy prostitutes. Under the circumstance that someone inside the police deliberately covered up the crime, the protagonists launched a secret investigation to solve the serial murder case of boy prostitutes.
The author told the story of the first boy prostitute who was discovered to the killer was shot, from the New York Times reporter, John Moore’s perspective.
I was deeply inspired by the author's narrative style, so I briefly explained the whole case objectively in the form of a newspaper imitating the 1900s. I chose to break away from the traditional style of newspapers by having many brutal and dramatic illustrations.
The story takes place in New York in 1896. At that time, New York was booming, with the great progress of technology on the one hand and the widening gap between the rich and the poor on the other. A serial killer brutally kills and mutilates boy prostitutes. Under the circumstance that someone inside the police deliberately covered up the crime, the protagonists launched a secret investigation to solve the serial murder case of boy prostitutes.
The author told the story of the first boy prostitute who was discovered to the killer was shot, from the New York Times reporter, John Moore’s perspective.
I was deeply inspired by the author's narrative style, so I briefly explained the whole case objectively in the form of a newspaper imitating the 1900s. I chose to break away from the traditional style of newspapers by having many brutal and dramatic illustrations.