Shiyeon Ku

MFA Painting

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The Root Above My Eyes

What does it mean to have a body? To touch, to breathe, to taste, and perceive all the things that make up a person, how does it feel to recognize the physical bounds your mind is enclosed in? To me—a woman, a bisexual woman, a biracial bisexual woman, an immigrant biracial bisexual woman, a Black and East Asian immigrant biracial bisexual woman—each of these markers feels heavy with its own context of history, location, and interpretation. Too many times have I wondered what it is like to be within a body accepted as a midpoint.

I make work out of spite toward the connotation my body holds in its existence. Drawing a fantastical structure of the world as well as the figure in an attempt to manifest a weightless reality. I think of my figures as my idols, experiencing the state of freedom that will be forever fictitious to me. Oil, with its flexibility of color, opacity, and density, allows for a transformation similar to the volatile nature of the anatomy I create. To allow myself and others who dream of an escape from the discerning gaze of larger society, I paint with clear intention, refusing to comfort the eye that expects a pleasant presentation of one’s body.