The Living Torso 2016- 2019
The Living Torso 2016- 2019
The Living Torso Project is a series of photographs that focus on drawing and contain the different types of body shapes and sizes in the same posture.
The figures provide both form and content for the matter of gender. The selected body is described as a torso mannequin in the state of decomposition; no arms, legs and head. This means that it is exploring the human body both inner and outer by implementing a fragmented body. Acquiring the specific posture aims to reconstruct a deficient beauty and express an ambiguous boundary as taking a juxtaposition of male/female.
The Living Torso Project is a series of photographs that focus on drawing and contain the different types of body shapes and sizes in the same posture.
The figures provide both form and content for the matter of gender. The selected body is described as a torso mannequin in the state of decomposition; no arms, legs and head. This means that it is exploring the human body both inner and outer by implementing a fragmented body. Acquiring the specific posture aims to reconstruct a deficient beauty and express an ambiguous boundary as taking a juxtaposition of male/female.
ARTIST BIO
Minju Kim is an emerging South Korean artist based in the UK. Drawing inspiration from human anatomy, psychoanalytic theory, and her breast cancer journey; her work explores themes of desire, life, and death. Her practice spans painting, sculpture, and photography, among other media. Exhibited internationally in cities such as London, New York, and Seoul. She collaborated with Adidas London for Women’s Month in 2022 and her painting raised significant funds at a Sotheby’s London charity auction in 2021.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Exploring the intricate relationship between desire, life, and death, woven through the surreal and visceral landscape of human existence. Rooted in human anatomy and psychoanalytic theory, I delve into the delicate interplay between the corporeal and the metaphysical, where the body becomes a vessel of both life and its inevitable decay.
My creative journey is profoundly shaped by my personal experience with breast cancer—a physical and emotional trial that has transformed my perspective on the fragility of the body. The distortions, transformations, and scars left behind by illness become central motifs in my work, where the human body is simultaneously celebrated and mourned. As a multidisciplinary artist, I engage with painting, photography, and sculpture to craft a narrative that reflects the perpetual cycle of mortality and the complex desires that shape it.
Through the lens of my medical history, I explore the human body with anatomy and medical science. Figures and patterns emerge, fragmented and reformed, echoing the tension between life and death. These symbols become a reflection of psychoanalytic thought, where desire is sublimated into art, and the body is both the subject and the canvas of existential exploration.
Ultimately, my work captures the relationship between consciousness and corporeality—where human desire is immortalised through form, and where life and death coexist in a surreal continuum.