A stuffed animal is supposed to be the safest object in the room. It’s soft, familiar, and built to stand in for comfort. But put a worn-out plush toy next to an anatomical model and a pile of discarded fabric, and you can see what they have in common. Each is a mass-produced form used as a surrogate body, for Sungho Bae, that’s where the work begins, with the instability of bodily perception.
Take a look through the images below to see how Bae’s plush toys, fabric scraps, and anatomical models come together as new bodies.
More info: sunghobae.com | Instagram
#1 (M)ri, 2025
Materials: Reconstructed Frankenstein monster plush toys, laser-engraved
Dimensions: 71 × 82 × 1.6 cm
Image source: baesungho_
Taxonomies emerge through collecting and dismantling, shaped by differences in construction, damage, use, and displacement. Plush toys, waste textiles, anatomical models, and fragments recovered from different material systems each establish different conditions for reconstruction, so the method changes with the material, through accumulation, containment, substitution, anatomical inference, or photographic montage.
#2 Codex: Archiving The New Mythos, 2022 – Ongoing, 2024
Materials: Fabrics from Frankenstein monster plush toys, product tags, one extracted eye
Dimensions: 22.9 × 15.2 × 2.5 cm
Image source: baesungho_
The resulting forms do not simply retain or reuse their sources. They move between commercial object, fragment, specimen, image, and fictional body, and it’s hard to say which one you’re looking at. As Bae puts it, bodily coherence “remains provisional, produced through the temporary agreement of heterogeneous parts and made unstable again when their differences become visible”, which is why the pieces never quite settle into one identity.
#3 Anatomy Of Unnamed, Yet Loved, 2025
Materials: Frankenstein monster plush toy parts, plush toy product tags, pins marking plush toy sources,
engraved metal base with relief
Dimensions: 230 × 90 × 90 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#4 Homo Derelictus Retextus: Case Study Of Speculative Reconstruction No. 2, 2024
Materials: Reconstructed stuffed animal parts and skull replicas retrieved from the waste stream through
anatomical inference
Dimensions: 142 × 100 × 42 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#5 Hdr: PA-11335, 2025
Materials: Stuffed animal parts and skull replica salvaged from waste-disposal sites, reconstructed skull
replicas
Dimensions: 24.6 × 19.6 × 19.6 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#6 New Galápagos Islands: On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Market Selection, 2024
Materials: Frankenstein monster plush toy parts
Dimensions: Variable
Image source: baesungho_
#7 Homo Derelictus Retextus: Case Study Of Speculative Reconstruction No. 1, 2024
Materials: Reconstructed stuffed animal parts and skull replicas retrieved from the waste stream through
anatomical inference
Dimensions: 142 × 100 × 42 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#8 Reconstructed Head No. 3, 2025
Materials: Archival pigment print, Diasec-mounted
Dimensions: 102 × 87 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#9 Tamed Wounds, 2022–ongoing
Materials: Stitched wound patterns on Frankenstein monster plush toys, coin holders, chromogenic print
Dimensions: 72.4 × 96.5 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#10 A Geography Of The Monster, 2024
Materials: Archival pigment print
Dimensions: 52 × 39 × 5.5 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#11 Extinction Without Ever Existing, 2024
Materials: Photographic montage composed of discarded stuffed animals and skull models, Diasec mount
Dimensions: 270 × 260 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#12 Nexus Field, 2025
Materials: Collage of cut photographs, discarded plush toy fragments, acrylic paint, archival pigment print
mounted on an aluminum panel
Dimensions: 190 × 310 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#13 Index Of Chronic Overreliance And Visceral Death, 2022
Materials: Frankenstein monster plush toy parts, archival pigment prints of historical anatomical paintings,
adrenal gland models
Dimensions: Variable
Image source: baesungho_
#14 Rooms Of Accumulation, 2023
Materials: Waste textiles retrieved from the waste stream
Dimensions: Variable
Image source: baesungho_
#15 Shaping The Collector, The Hoarder And The Accumulator, 2025
Materials: Lenticular postcards
Dimensions: Variable
Image source: baesungho_
#16 Homo Derelictus Retextus: Composite Anatomical Montage No. 1-A, 2024
Materials: Photographic composition of a layered anatomical montage using discarded stuffed animals and
skull models, Diasec mount
Dimensions: 270 × 194 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#17 Homo Derelictus Retextus: Composite Anatomical Montage No. 2-E, 2024
Materials: Photographic composition of a layered anatomical montage using discarded stuffed animals and
skull models, Diasec mount
Dimensions: 270 × 194 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#18 Reconstructed Head No. 4, 2025
Materials: Archival pigment print, Diasec-mounted
Dimensions: 102 × 87 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#19 Mattress, 2022
Materials: Polyester stuffing recovered from Frankenstein monster plush toys, mattress cover
Dimensions: Approx. 152 × 203 × 25 cm
Image source: baesungho_
#20 Zcd-23: Contagious Structure Type 1, 2024
Materials: Zombie plush toy parts, acrylic isolation chamber with integrated gloves, stainless steel pedestal
Dimensions: 149.9 × 61 × 53.3 cm
Image source: baesungho_
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