THE BODY, WITHOUT THE BODY
Artist Won Ji Lim turns the physical logic of the human body into an abstract sculptural vocabulary across her Untitled, Anima-in anima, and We are living in a room series. Her earlier work began with an interest in qualities such as uprightness and bilateral symmetry, treating the body less as an image to reproduce than as a system that could be broken down, rearranged and translated into form. In the Untitled series, recognizable anatomy gives way to controlled compositions structured through proportion, verticality and balance.
Material choices push the sculptures even further from direct representation. Won Ji pairs opaque cement with transparent glass, using their opposing densities, weights and degrees of visibility to build tension within each work. Both materials are shaped through casting, while glass is also melted and reformed in the kiln, allowing the artist to work with a substance that shifts between rigid and fluid states. Color deliberately avoids anatomical associations too, leaving the works to stand — quite literally in some cases — on their own sculptural terms.
Anima-in anima series, Won Ji Lim
HARD OUTSIDE, SOFT INSIDE
As her practice developed, Won Ji’s attention moved from the body’s overall silhouette toward the relationship between its exterior and interior. This contrast becomes central to Anima-in anima and We are living in a room, where rigid outer shells meet softer, less predictable contents. Instead of turning to anatomical materials, the artist looks to ordinary objects capable of carrying the same physical qualities.
Glass bottles and acrylic boxes suggest protective, clearly defined structures, while stockings, sponges, foam, cotton, yarn, bubble wrap, acoustic panels and aqua sticks occupy their interiors with a very different kind of presence. Softness presses against rigidity, transparent surfaces reveal what would normally remain hidden, and familiar household materials begin to feel unexpectedly bodily. Nothing quite resembles an organ or a limb, but the associations are difficult to entirely shake.
We are living in a room series, Won Ji Lim
EVERYDAY MATERIALS TAKE ON A BODY OF THEIR OWN
Across the three series, Won Ji uses casting, stacking, containing, assembling and juxtaposing to reconstruct bodily qualities without illustrating the body itself. Symmetry can become an arrangement of objects; transparency suggests an exposed interior; density and weight stand in for physical mass. The resulting sculptures operate somewhere between formal studies and quietly psychological objects, with ordinary materials made slightly unfamiliar through their new relationships.
The body therefore remains a point of departure rather than a final destination. By translating its rigidity, softness, interiority and balance into glass, cement and found materials, Won Ji Lim creates sculptures that ask viewers to recognize physical sensations without providing an obvious figure to attach them to. A bottle is still a bottle, foam is still foam — but once assembled together, they start behaving like something rather more alive.
Untitled, Won Ji Lim
Untitled, Won Ji Lim
Untitled, Won Ji Lim
Anima-in anima 01, Won Ji Lim
Anima-in anima 02, Won Ji Lim
Anima-in anima 03, Won Ji Lim
We are living in a room 01, Won Ji Lim
We are living in a room 02, Won Ji Lim
We are living in a room 03, Won Ji Lim
project info:
name: Untitled series, Anima-in anima series, We are living in a room series
artist: Won Ji Lim | @zeal.ji_
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. See more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: Iñaki Laguardia | designboom