ROSIE DING
Fingers
The finger, with its tensile ability to extend, contract, and distort, remains one of my favorite subjects. The soft flesh seems locked in a constant struggle with the protruding bony knuckles, its contours shifting fluidly under the brain’s command. No other part of the body molds, folds, and creases with such ease. I find its form mystifying: isolated from the hand, each finger takes on a life of its own, resembling an extraterrestrial worm or perhaps an arachnid leg.
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Fingers are fascinating not only in their physicality but also in their symbolic and functional roles. They move as both independent entities and integral parts of the unified hand—a symbol of control, capability, and agency. They represent freedom; any attempt to bind or restrict them evokes distress, underscoring our reliance on them and the discomfort of limitation. Yet, we often take them for granted, with individual fingers rarely receiving the attention they deserve—there are ten, after all.​
Through physical enlargement and exaggerated textures, my finger sculptures draw attention to this often-overlooked subject, inviting deeper contemplation of the significance of this indispensable part of the body.
Through these oversized fingernails, I transform the usual perceptions around this body part and render it strange—dislocating it from its usual context and creating a sense of uneasiness that facilitates a surreal experience. With its exaggerated scale and visceral texture, it asks you to see the human form as something both intimate and alien, beauty tangled with the grotesque.
