This study examines my artistic oeuvre from 2023 to the present. Grounded in autobiographical experiences, I conducted a formative inquiry into how queer body images are articulated within contemporary sociocultural contexts and how perspectives on bo...
This study examines my artistic oeuvre from 2023 to the present. Grounded in autobiographical experiences, I conducted a formative inquiry into how queer body images are articulated within contemporary sociocultural contexts and how perspectives on bodily desire can be conceptualized. I analyzed the significance and merit of the paintings developed through this process. The core of this research lies in visually representing the strata of oppression, anxiety, and desire that the queer body encounters in society, alongside my own identity.
This inquiry extends to an aesthetic introspection regarding the structural gaze directed at the self and the body. Central to this introspection are the gaze upon the body, the surrounding social discourses, and the resulting aesthetic attitude.
This attitude functions not merely as a preference for the flesh, but as a critical instrument revealing the personal desires sedimented within body images, the social norms addressing them, and the gaze of power. The gaze upon the body is inextricably linked to my identity. Through hyper-realistic representations of deviant images or obscene scenes that subvert norms, I delve into the underlying implications of the images surfacing on the canvas. These works transcend two-dimensional imagery to pose existential questions regarding the norms enveloping the body.
In my view, the body in modern society is not a mere biological entity but a social symbol—disciplined, consumed, and processed—and an arena of power where diverse discourses are projected. To articulate this, I established a formal approach to explore and express my ego, directly manifesting queer identity based on concrete imagery. During the creative process, I perceive the bodies of myself and my associates not as mere objects of observation, but as loci where trauma, identity, and desire intersect. To adapt to a society dominated by universality, I, as a subject with a queer identity, suppressed and concealed my desires and propensities.
Consequently, psychological layers of self-loathing, alienation, tension, and anxiety have deeply sedimented within my body.
These artworks transcend personal emotion to examine how I distorted my self-consciousness to form an identity within a heteronormative society.
The resulting pieces deeply investigate how social gazes regarding identity become embodied in the individual physique and subsequently return to impact the self. The necessity of manifesting these contentious themes in art is synonymous with revealing the cognitive structure of the body and the world through a queer’s eye, grounded in reflection on the existential self.
Emotions experienced while confronting the world through a queer’s gaze, alongside a sense of identity, often remained as mnemonic afterimages in the form of specific words. I wove these sentiments into sentences and juxtaposed them with images, evolving my practice into a mode of speaking through painting. While painting is inherently mute, I established a relational dynamic between text and image, completing a form that initiates a dialogue regarding the direction of appreciation. This visualizes my past self, isolated and muttering monologues.
Therefore, this thesis explores methods of remembering and desiring through the body, utilizing the physiques of myself and my associates as the primary subject matter of painting.
Here, Memory signifies the retrieval of bodies that never belonged to the universal and were eternally lost—a restoration of personal history erased by universality and desires silenced by it. 'Desire' denotes a challenge to social taboos and a rediscovery of the aesthetic beauty found in concealed sadistic sexuality.