Invisible Torso #2

A direct impression of the artist’s body was used to create this work. An initial image was made by laying out multiple sheets of exposed photographic paper, then covering these papers with a sheet of bubble wrap coated with photo-developer. When the artist lay on top of the bubble wrap, the pressure of her body and drips of developer left a distinctive record of that moment. That image was digitized and enlarged, then printed out on Korean mulberry paper. Koo has said that this process “created figures composed exclusively of movements of fluid and faceted sparks of light.”

Invisible Torso #2 was part of a series made while the artist was undergoing treatment for cancer. “Invisible” refers to the body at the cellular level: the abstract but recognizable form of a body suggests imagery from a medical scan; the bubbles and drips are like burst cells and bodily fluids.