In Nailshop, nails become a lens through which to examine the intersection of evolution and culture, primal instinct and social ritual. The series explores these keratin fragments across their full spectrum—from pristine to fungal, utilitarian to decorative—revealing how they function as both biological inheritance and cultural symbols.
As evolutionary artifacts, nails connect us to our clawed ancestors, carrying vestigial memories of climbing, hunting, and defense. Yet in human culture, they have acquired complex symbolic weight. Healthy nails signal vitality; fungal or brittle ones betray illness or neglect. Through decoration, they become sites of identity and power—from the hennaed nails of ancient Egypt to contemporary nail art. Like the mythic Naglfar ship built from corpses’ uncut nails, they retain an unsettling power even when transformed by disease or artifice.
The project examines both deliberate nail expressions and unintentional revelations in urban space. From meticulous manicures to yellowing infections, each nail tells multiple stories—of evolution and adaptation, of beauty and decay, of nature’s persistence and human intervention. Through these collected manifestations, Nailshop reveals how these seemingly mundane appendages continue to shape our understanding of identity, health, and the tenuous boundaries between the primal and the cultivated.
