Identity
Tessa reconstructs women’s torsos in various clay tones, addressing themes of ethnicity, equality, and women’s empowerment. In this exhibition, her torsos are suspended at human eye level, creating encounters where visitors must decide how to respond when meeting their gaze. The torsos wear ceramic corsets, reflecting past notions of femininity reframed in the present. Through this, Tessa emphasizes women’s strength and their equal power alongside men, while also critically questioning her own position: “As a white Dutch woman, can I sculpt the faces of women of color? Where does empathy end, and intrusion begin?”
Animality
Kyungmi explores human animality, starting from the provocation “Humanimalism”. She asks: “Human,animal,human,animal?”. She creates dog and human figures, juxtaposed equally within a box. The narrative unfolding inside reveals that desire, civilization, and instinct are inseparable from animality, while questioning what we believe being human truly means.
