Gallery Entry

The Creature

By Penny · TW

The Creature Artwork Description | Human After All Prize 2026 This work was inspired by Frankenstein, the classic novel published in 1818 by Mary Shelley. The original novel explores the creation of life, loneliness, responsibility, and the complex relationship between a creator and his creation. What I wanted to continue, however, was not the hatred between Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, but the life the Creature had yet to live after that tragedy had ended. When the one who created him is dead, when his hatred no longer has a target, how does a being who has never truly been loved go on living? This question became the starting point of The Creature. The story begins after Victor’s death. Wounded and exhausted, the Creature walks alone into a blizzard. Eventually, he collapses at the edge of a forest, where he is discovered by a doctor named Adrian. Adrian is not a saint who feels no fear or accepts everyone unconditionally. He, too, is frightened by the Creature’s appearance, but he does not allow that fear to become a reason to hurt him. He does not force the Creature to accept treatment, give him a name, or ask him to stay. When the Creature refuses to be touched, Adrian steps back. When the Creature reveals that he has no name, Adrian leaves the choice of a name to him. When the Creature prepares to leave, Adrian does not try to stop him. Through these seemingly ordinary moments, the Creature begins, for the first time, to experience what it means to have a choice. He can refuse. He can ask for help. He can leave. And he can choose to return. I did not want the emotional relationship in this story to develop too quickly. For a being who has endured rejection, loneliness, and suffering for so long, trust should not suddenly appear after only a few encounters with someone kind. That is why I chose to tell this story through nine consecutive four-panel sequences, gradually showing the two characters moving from suspicion to understanding, from trust to the willingness to grow closer, followed by one final standalone image. At the end of the story, the Creature expresses, for the first time, his wish for someone to stay. But Adrian does not promise to remain with him forever. I believe that what makes a relationship truly precious is not that one person must exist for the other, but that both remain free to leave, yet still choose each other. The Creature’s body was created by someone else, but the life ahead of him should be his to decide. In the end, he receives no promise of eternity. For the first time, he simply begins to look forward to tomorrow. The Creature is not merely a story about a being learning what it means to be loved. It is a story about a life brought into existence by another, finally beginning to belong to itself.

Category

VISUAL ART

Approved

8 October 2026