Art by Grace Ko
This artwork was originally created in homage to a film called ‘Perfect Blue’ by Satoshi Kon; a sickening tale about a young female idol’s experience in the entertainment industry. The film’s commentary on the sexual exploitation of women in the media was articulated through obscure and volatile imagery that captured an inherent anger, an ancient rage which left me breathless. Originally, this painting was simply a way to appreciate Kon’s art and storytelling; a distant depiction of the female protagonist who was permanently silenced in a glamorized yet cruel industry, a setting unfamiliar to me.
Four years later, this piece revisited my mind as more news surfaced from my homeland, South Korea. Continuous stories of women being assaulted via AI and Deepfakes left me—despite my physical, and somewhat cultural distance—feeling naked and exposed, a tiny taste of what the girls and women who share my face experience. To be under the watchful lens of the media means the female form continues to be groped, molested, and now mauled into a disfigured patchwork body that is a whisper of what She once was.
Through the vibrant colors that contrast the expressionless depiction of the female subject, I hope to illustrate the dissonance between the artificial, plastic-smooth filter that fetishizes the feminine form and the sober, textured edges of the subjected people who live in this reality. While this anger still exists in me, I hope this piece evokes a moment of solemn and disturbed silence for the audience.