Private Space;  Personal Jar

It has always been like this. 

The closer I get, the further it moves away, 

the closer I try to go, the more it collides, 

and then it breaks…

    Seeing someone approach others without fear, only to turn back hurt, I once felt—though invisible—the importance of a private space within relationships. Because I am someone who is deeply absorbed in relationships, I became interested in the presence and absence of private space within them, and I wanted to express it visually. To do so, I tried to create a form of space and express it through the diversity of human relationships. First, to create a private space, one spreads both arms and marks out a circular territory for oneself, and then sets up a protective barrier. In doing so, a space is created that no one should invade. Once a space exists, people tend to fill it in ways that reveal their own personality and taste. Thus, some fill it with cushions, some with thorny branches, and others with fragile-looking crystal. In this way, each person fills their own space with the weapons and shields they have chosen in order to protect their image, their personal space, and something they do not wish to be invaded.

The selection of imagery began with objects. The tendencies and private stories revealed in each person are small and subtle, but not insufficient to be represented through objects. Even simple fairy tale stories we already know, objects that come to mind when listening to or telling someone’s story, or landscapes seen while walking—such images can easily be found in the world, and are enough to bring out their worlds within imagination. In this way, the presence of objects once considered trivial reveals itself as living beings that form relationships with human images and exist together. Within relationships, humans reveal or conceal their own space in order to know others, to be known, or conversely, from the desire not to be known. This may reveal strength, or weakness; sometimes it appears impressive, sometimes trivial, and at times not interesting at all—yet it can also be exposed to excessive attention. In this way, countless kinds of private spaces are formed. One’s identity and sense of existence are revealed through objects shaped by personality, environment, preferences, and tastes. Though they may seem small and insignificant, they are essential to us, appearing as something we can always find. These diverse images are, in whatever form they take in the world, the way we truly are, and the world as I see it—the world we live in.

Written in July 2023, when realization came late 

Written by Park So-young