ARTIST STATEMENT
Square Play
-People who looking for happiness-
“I wake up in bed every morning, get ready to work, and step out through the door of my apartment. The crowds of people in the bus and subway...like them I ride towards another four cornered destination while inside one.”
It can be said that we are living in civilization of squares since we seem to be surrounded by them. Maybe we even get a feeling of assimilation with the squares as they get more familiar as we get used to them.
My work is expressing the characteristics of modern day people through squares. They are a reflection of modern people living in the boundaries of a square, their comical image is a kind of self-portrait of the modern human living in these times.
Even if we want to or not, we live inside the boundaries of society. In the ‘now’ of reality, the ideal of the future, and the expanded realities of our dreams, we still operate inside the lines.
We stay inside with being happy with what we have and wanting to be happy.
Happiness...we all hope to be happy. The situation and the extent might be different, but the basic concept of the realization of one’s ideal is the same. However, we are blocked by a wall called reality whenever we dream to become happy.
Therefore we strive to cut the boundaries of reality and find something new by living a life of freedom or take a step closer to our own idealistic life. But how much freedom do we need to realize the worth of our happiness?
For example, imagine a bird flying freely in the wild and one in captivity. What would the think about each other, and which one would be happier, or closer to happiness? It is hard to define easily. The caged bird is happier if the point was of security since the bird is fed daily and protected from predators, but the wild bird would be happier if the point was of freedom since its natural instincts are not restricted.
This is because happiness is not set in stone and changes with the situation and viewpoints of each individual.
Happiness is not something you find far away, or only if you become free and unrestricted from reality.
‘How do I deal with the situation at hand and what do I get out of it?’ is the important question.
I do not try to step outside the square of reality, but rather to try and find joy, show the modern human finding their own reflection inside society, and to find another source of excitement inside a constructed frame.
We might be used to living with unnatural square shapes feeling trapped and stifled, but trying to live inside the boundaries rather than trying to escape and find the joy of freedom, finding the joys and what we want, we might be able to discover more easily a brighter happiness and joy.