Inspired by the No Ghost Just a Shell project, Soo Joo's debut EP No Ghost reflects her journey from modeling to music, channeling Annlee’s own self-liberation.

No Ghost Just a Shell was an art project initiated by Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno in 2001, centered around Annlee, a manga character purchased from a Japanese agency. Other artists were invited to explore whether a character like Annlee, devoid of its original context, can exist as a vessel for new meanings and questions how ownership affects the cultural value and life of a character. In an act of liberation, after the project, Annlee was ultimately given her ‘freedom’ by Huyghe and Parreno, who relinquished all rights to her, allowing her to exist free from any further exploitation.

“In many aspects of my work, I’ve been the avatar to someone else’s product or vision.
By drawing a line between myself and Annlee, I ask the audience to consider my own agency,
versus the symbols and messages placed upon me.
(...)
In conversations with Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe,
I had to convey the reasons I felt so obsessed with the idea of Annlee being a part of this.
We agreed we wouldn’t bring her back to life in a new incarnation —
even if we asked her to, she would refuse to return — but rather celebrate her past existence,
which had brought myself and the public some interesting questions about identity and autonomy.”

Soo Joo, Dazed, Feb. 2025.

Signed and numbered by the artist on the reverse