Jisu Kwak

 

▷ How did your work with the body and form begin?
From childhood, I lived abroad among homestay families of different races, religions, and cultures, yet I was always read as an “Asian woman.” I became acutely aware of how others perceived me through my body, which led naturally to an interest in the body and identity. A CT scan later revealed a mass growing inside me despite no outward symptoms. That shock made me want to create figure sculptures exposing the body’s interior, where multiple bodily states overlap and collide.

 

▷ What does working with materials by hand mean to you?
My work begins with polished body images from advertisements or stock photography. I print, crumple, tear, and handle them, breaking down their flawless surfaces. Real bodies carry scars, wrinkles, tension, and pressure. Through touch, the image becomes matter with weight and volume—a body occupying actual space and bearing traces of wounds and tension.

 

 

 

 

▷ Where do your work and 《HUMAL》 meet?
My work resists being read as a single, fixed identity. Within one body, conflicting identities coexist—neither female nor male, yet also both. Animal images, such as a pig’s teeth, a monkey’s mouth, or a dog’s nose, enter the human body, suggesting that multiple beings and sensations can coexist within one form. Humans also contain animal instincts and cannot be explained through one stable identity.

 

▷What do you hope viewers feel?
I present figure sculptures formed from entangled body images and light, fragile materials. Boundaries we take for granted blend and collide within a single body. I hope viewers look slowly at bodies where different senses and emotions intermingle, reflecting on how they coexist and how each person’s experience of the body differs. I hope it becomes an occasion to reconsider the boundaries between human, animal, self, and other.