The Weight of Control

Content Warning (hover to view)

CONTENT WARNING: This content contains or explores content that touches on any of the following topics: abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, verbal); aspects of psychology and mental health and contains depictions of self harm, substance abuse, eating disorders, or suicide; swears or curses; hurtful or hateful language; discrimination (race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender orientation); aspects of pregnancy; blood, violence, assault, kidnapping, trauma, or dying. Please read or view with care.

Ahn J.

Digital Art (procreate)

• Artist Statement

  With social media promoting unrealistic and often unhealthy beauty standards, eating and body image have become major sources of distress, especially for teenagers. This digital painting explores binge-eating disorder and the suffocating pressure to maintain a slim figure. The woman consumes food uncontrollably as a severed hand forces her mouth open, portraying the loss of agency that those trapped in compulsive cycles of binging and purging struggle with. The piece ultimately conveys how societal expectations impact mental health, specifically focusing on eating disorders and how eating has become a source of fear and guilt.

• Creative Statement

  Creativity, to me, is being given the freedom to fill a canvas to whatever my heart desires. Creativity never has had a definite shape; though I'm confined to the canvas in a literal sense, artistically, being creative means I break frames and build new ones.