Meet the renowned Korean artist, Lee Jinju, who crafts her masterpieces upon her very own body canvas.
"When I saw this photo, I thought 'it's sweet,'" said Jinju, speaking to CNN from her current residence in the US. "But I think many people would find it unsettling."
Sporting fiery, magenta locks and a garment boasting an otherworldly pattern of human anatomy, Jinju may raise eyebrows in Seoul, but in New York, she blends effortlessly into the crowd – and she thrives on it.
The 30-year-old reveals that her most successful work has been in Europe and the USA, where she first gained recognition in 2016. Tapping into American attention not only elevated her profile but also increased awareness of Korean artists and performers. "The recognition I received from American media was a big deal," she said. "It's not just about me, but about many Korean artists or musicians. If they get attention abroad, they'll start getting recognition back home."
Jinju's mastery of optical illusions and deception has attracted attention from musicians such as Halsey and James Blake, with whom she collaborated. HerBody painting skills have earned her spots on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and in campaigns for Estée Lauder, BMW, Apple, and Adidas. She's even embellished Vogue and Harper's Bazaar with her distinctive shape-shifting style.
"My work is never manipulated in post-production," Jinju stresses. "Only myself, a mirror, a camera, and body painting sessions that last between three to twelve hours." The labor-intensive process was one of the reasons that she opted out of using models, choosing instead to save people's time.
Bizarre Selfies: This Artist Leverages Her Body as a Canvas
Charming Twist
People have reported to Jinju that her work is captivating and sometimes unnerving – think of distorted and reassembled facial features like those of Mr. Potato Head, half-melted candles with her image imprinted in them, adorned with a twitching eye, or faces that appear to have been crafted from discarded handbags. She explained that it was never her intention to unsettle people (she herself doesn't particularly enjoy darker works and prefers to inject humor into her creations). But since her face often doubles as her canvas, people sometimes give it more importance than she intended.
Most of the time, Jinju presents herself playfully and uses self-portraits as emotional snapshots of her feelings. In her work from the beginning of the year, her heightened senses and sensitivity were reflected in a piece in the cubist style, where her face was distorted via a triangular prism, allowing viewers to witness the distortion. Triangular prism distortion. The eyes convey a clear and sharp feeling. In another piece, "Let It Flow," waves and whirls of brushstrokes wrap around the curves of Jinju's face and neck, while in "Miss Universe" her face – save for her bright red lips and fiery locks – is completely enveloped by her fingers.
"It's like a secret diary," she said of the latter work. "Every time I'm really sad or ill at ease, I write it down." She initially wrote one entry per week, but she hasn't written in the last two months.
In her work "What I'm Made of," Jinju's face is entirely covered by emojis, creating a tapestry of smileys, glowing orbs, hearts, and other expressions that reveal her identity. She wiped away her facial features so that she was only faintly recognizable, but the emojis didn't hide her identity – rather, they captured the way she felt and communicated during her period of relocation to the USA.
"I realized that I started using a lot of emojis since moving to the USA because it's easier to communicate that way," she admitted, mimicking sentences and words using a smattering of emojis. "But now, all I need is a single emoji to convey everything."
This exploration of foreignness in a new, foreign world was part of a new creative direction that freed her from the complicated feelings she had as a young woman in South Korea. "I've become a more stable and strong person," she said of her move to New York.
"It's like a hidden diary. Every time I'm really sad or uncomfortable, I write it down," she said. "I used to write one entry a week, but now it's been two months since I last wrote."
[1] . (2023, December 6). Meet the Korean artist who uses her own body as her canvas. .
