Lash

TOKI, the pretty doll-like cyborg, has all the conventional attributes of a clichéd femininity valued in Korean culture. The ultra-sexy TOKI is the embodiment of fantasy, sensuality, and seduction. Here she lures the audience by inviting the (male) viewer into a fantasy, suggesting that she possesses the power to fulfil his desire in the creation of an ideal, virtual beauty. TOKI’s exaggerated eyelashes epitomise the powerful image of an ideal beauty, and the ability of digital and surgical construction to create a ‘plastic’ fantasy world.

The circular projection screen in Lash symbolises a mirror which both projects and reflects TOKI’s transformation. The mirror is the vehicle for the exchange of emotions—including desire—between TOKI and the (male) viewer: here TOKI symbolises, and the viewer projects, a possible perfection. Yet TOKI is teasing, she possesses her own desire and also retains the power to control and seduce the viewer. TOKI changes from cute to sensual and seductive in a process of entrapment, evocatively symbolised by the whip-like lashing of the soundtrack as TOKI blinks.