Life Growing from the Fingertips

Nail artist Yoo Seung-hwi's work begins at the fingernail and extends across the entire body. She turned Red Velvet into mermaids, gave NMIXX wings on their hands, and set plants on XG that climbed past the arms and reached down to the feet. In her practice the nail is not an endpoint but a point of origin. What begins at the fingertip grows across the back of the hand and up into the torso.

She deploys 3D printers and special-effects makeup to build creatures that seem to grow out of the fingertips. When translucent resin, its surface glossy like something still wet, is layered with the texture of a living organism, the nail becomes a petal, a shell, a fin. Flowers and stems, scales and vines, wings. What she creates is one part of a living organism. What kind of life do you want to see growing from your fingertips?