Kumi Kaguraoka
Will my body turn into mind?
Will my body turn into mind?
My body turns into ideals
The Metamorphoses of Beautiful Bodies.
Profile
Kumi Kaguraoka
From Tokyo. Master’s degree from Musashino Art University. Focusing on the “aesthetic power” (aesthetic value) that has continually influenced the human body throughout history, she creates works that examine new beauty through the use of contemporary technology. 2022: Trained in New York with a grant from the Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation. 2019: Awarded Junya Yamamine Prize at the Public Art Innovation international symposium. Photo : Yume Takakura © 2023 KUMIKAGURAOKA. All rights reserved
Commentary
What is “a beautiful body” to you?
The value of beauty has undergone many changes as the times or cultural backgrounds change.
Actions that restricted the body to achieve beauty ideals, such as the Chinese foot binding, which held that small feet were essential for beauty, or the corset arising from the European nobility, are still continuing, albeit in different forms.
In modern Japan, there has been a unique evolution of the "Mori" culture, which is a trend to enhance everything from photo booth stickers to apps that edit facial features.
Kumi Kaguraoka is proposing a “future beauty” a thousand years into the future while referencing this history of changing beauty. In a harsh environment where global warming has become worse, what sort of body will be seen as beautiful?
Materials provided by Yuka Kubo
Graphic design by Shota Nakamura