Description
A naked woman, her back to us, scrubs a bodysuit in a basin. The water-soaked second skin resembles a Japanese anime heroine, wide eyes and rose-tinted lips. Now in front of her bathroom mirror, staring at her “self” as her phone pings repeatedly with texts, the woman puts it on, and goes out to see her friends.
A face mask would have successfully conveyed the titular concept of “persona”, of how we present ourselves to the outside world, of what we “front” to better fit in. But the suit becomes a more radical prison for Sujin Moon to explore societal pressure and identity in the digital age, through the lens of body horror. An anxiety-inducing soundscape and the bathroom space, steamy and claustrophobic, add to the sense of suffocation and entrapment of the self.
Back in her bathroom, the body suit is clinging at her waist. In front of the mirror, persona and self become enmeshed, mangled, until one takes over, annihilating the other.
Manon Euler