Repellent is a sculptural wearable artwork that explores the fragile relationship between vulnerability and protection. Taking the form of a thorn-covered swimsuit, the piece transforms an intimate garment into a symbolic second skin—one that simultaneously invites attention and repels intrusion.

The work reflects on the realities many women continue to face in contemporary society, where physical, psychological, and digital violence shape everyday experience. Rather than concealing the female body, Repellent confronts this reality directly, asking how visibility can exist without surrendering safety.

Covering the swimsuit with hundreds of sharp thorns creates an immediate contradiction. The garment suggests intimacy and exposure, while its hostile surface establishes an unmistakable boundary. The body remains visible, yet becomes untouchable. Attraction and danger, beauty and defense coexist in a single object.

The thorns symbolize resilience rather than aggression. They are not weapons but protective structures—a response to vulnerability rather than a denial of it. The work proposes that strength does not emerge from becoming invulnerable, but from claiming the right to define one’s own boundaries.

Repellent invites viewers to reconsider conventional ideas of femininity, power, and protection. It challenges the expectation that women’s bodies should remain permanently accessible, suggesting instead that self-protection can itself become an act of empowerment.

Ultimately, Repellent is both sculpture and statement: a second skin that embodies resistance, autonomy, and the determination to remain visible without becoming available.