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Project Year.
2013 - 2016 

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Cosmetic Surgery Kingdom compares the booming plastic surgery phenomenon in South Korea with the practice of design. It examines modification of our bodies as a way to express dignity and achieve a better position within society. Designers are always focused on making a ‘good design’, but what ‘being better’ actually means is also difficult to answer.

Ultimately, Cosmetic Surgery Kingdom questions the meaning of cosmetic surgery, and how modifying an individual’s body also transforms their originality and freedom.

The project is made up of several parts: a thesis magazine, a personal exploration into altering one’s face and nose, a series of chairs who ‘want’ cosmetic surgery; and videos documenting this chair surgery procedure.

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The thesis magazine catalogues key word themes from A to Z, which address varied issues such as advertisement in cosmetic surgery, the global standard of beauty, obsession and pain. Each key word is explored through photography, performance and surveys. The design method uses a variety of visual tools to critically examine cosmetic surgery.

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She modified printed images of her face giving a visceral experience of cosmetic surgery.

More Chairs ...

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Process.

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In this part, a humble mass produced wooden chair undergoes cosmetic surgery, in order to become an Eames’ chair. After the plastic surgery, the original chair can be identified in the approximate form of the iconic chair, however it has lost it’s own beauty and identity. It cannot fully accomplish a total transformation-it can never be in Eames’ LCW chair-it is somewhere suspended in between.

Moreover, this concept applied for other iconic chairs such as Red and Blue chair by Gerrit Rietveld, Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer. 

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Cosmetic Surgery Kingdom project has a lot of potential for cbasic object in our life. For example, this kind of cheap plastic goods from one Euro shops, they are everywhere and easy to buy and throw away. I did surgery on them to transform into meaningful object. Designers effort and hand skills applied on the cheap plastic object to have a new life.

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Process.