Beauty & the Beholder

Born in South Korea, a country famous for its beauty and cosmetic surgery industries, artist Anna Park is no stranger to society’s obsession with staying young. It seems fitting that she chose to focus her portfolio on Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror movie, The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. 

The film centers on Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-iconic aerobics star, now in her 50s, who gets unceremoniously fired from her famous television show due to her age. Faced with the realities of her declining relevance in an industry that prizes youth above all else, she decides to change her life by taking a black-market substance to create Sue, a younger version of herself. Initially, Sue seems to personify everything Elisabeth longs for—beauty, vitality and acceptance. However, as the two versions—the older, discarded self and the younger, idealized one—begin to coexist, their relationship spirals into conflict, and themes of ageism, beauty standards and self-loathing are explored with visceral intensity. 

The film’s retro-futuristic aesthetic and dystopian undertones, paired with the grotesque body horror, drew Park deeper into its disturbing world. After moving to the United States at a young age, her passion for drawing developed into a fascination with how women are perceived and constantly monitored, judged and marketed. Her work explores the pervasive dynamics of advertising and how it uses the body to sell products. Omnipresent and unrelenting, these messages play into our collective psyche, insidiously persuading us that we are incomplete and must strive to become “better versions” of ourselves. 

This commodification, most often of the female body, is made even more evident with the use of billboards, which Park frequently utilizes as a motif in her work. These massive, over-the-top advertisements seem to act as giant metaphorical megaphones, broadcasting to women what they are supposedly lacking. In The Substance, this idea is reflected right outside Elisabeth’s apartment, where an enormous billboard of Sue looms ominously, reminding the main character of her shortcomings and contributing to her slow descent into madness and self-destruction. 

In this portfolio, Park focuses on the film’s striking use of mirrors and reflections, as much of The Substance is filmed from the viewpoint of characters looking at themselves in mirrors—whether it’s Sue marveling at her newly flawless features, Elisabeth scrutinizing her aging skin or even the monstrous hybrid “Elisasue” contending with her new appearance. Throughout the movie, these visual elements are used to convey the lonely, vulnerable and relentless confrontation the characters have with their image. Park’s charcoal drawings reimagine four of these central moments with meticulous detail, capturing the essence of the scenes and further investigating one of the film’s central themes: the immense pressure placed on women to maintain their youth and desirability at any cost. 

One particularly evocative work reinterprets the scene where the grotesque “monstro Elisasue” looks at herself in the mirror and tenderly places an earring wherever she can fit it on her distorted body. This moment, both brutal and vulnerable, highlights the emotional and physical toll of striving for perfection. It is a poignant reflection on the human condition, where self-worth is often measured against impossible standards and the futile fight against a relentless and unbeatable foe: the passage of time. The movie’s narrative and Park’s interpretation resonate as a modern-day fable, reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, about the soul-crushing costs of chasing an unattainable ideal.

Park’s vibrant, energetic drawings enhance the film’s profound humanity, urging viewers to question their own beliefs and struggles with self-worth and reflect on the pervasive frameworks of societal expectations. As Demi Moore, a Golden Globe winner for Best Actress for her role in The Substance, beautifully said in her acceptance speech, “You will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.”