프로젝트 “SELF”는 외부의 것을 바라보기 이전에 자신의 내부를 들여다보자는 취지에서 시작되었다. 오랜 기간 동안 자신이 어떤 일을 겪었고 스스로의 삶의 방향성을 고찰하면서 나온 부산물로써의 사진들은 스스로에 대한 반성과 정리가 담겨 있다. 작품은 크게 두 가지 분야로 나뉜다. 첫째는 자신을 설명할 수 있는 물건과 행위를 찍은 부분이다. 자신의 정체성을 이루게 한 습관들과 사건들을 나타내는 사진들은 남들이 알 수 없는 내밀한 스스로의 습관들과 경험들을 반영한다. 숨기고 싶어할 경험 들이나 상황들을 솔직하게 고백하는 부분으로 자신을 형성하게 되는 중요한 사건들을 그리게 된다.

둘째는 주관과 객관 사이의 자신의 모습에 대한 연작이다. 스스로가 보는 자신의 모습과 남들이 보는 나의 모습은 다르다. 그 괴리에 대한 고찰로 시작된 이 부분은 스스로가 본 자신, 가족이 본 자신, 지인이 본 자신, 타자가 본 자신, 기계장치의 시선 으로 넘어가며 주관과 객관의 모습들을 보여준다. 이러한 과정을 통해 정체성을 결정하는 것이 무엇에서 기인하는지 본인의 정의를 확립하게 된다.

 

This project was initiated in order to learn about myself a little bit more, and shows my perspective about looking oneself. The project consists of two parts; one that compares the perspective between subjectivity and objectivity on perceiving oneself, another that explains myself with my habit and experience which influ- enced me critically in my adolescence period. Throughout the project I wanted to show different perspective to observe oneself, not only trying to show my identity.

The first part includes 6 pictures of myself. Pictures were displayed in an order that shows the most sub- jective view about myself to the most objective picture of me. Starting from a photo taken while looking at the mirror, it becomes less subjective such as a photo taken by my mom, friends, a total stranger, and a shot taken by automatic timer. By these pictures, I wanted to show the difference between subjectivity and objectivity. Furthermore, the pictures show how people with certain relationship look at me. For example, the picture taken by my mom looks younger and fatter than other pictures. The picture taken from total stranger reveals the fact that people do not show their identity to others easily.

The second part explains myself with my habits and experience. First picture is called “Shaving- removing masculinity”. This picture started from deep consideration about the act of shaving. Shaving is a social act that makes man look less masculine. Therefore, I thought that the society now requires people not to be to- tally man-like or girl-like. I always had the anguish about my social position between two genders. Therefore, I decided to take a picture of myself with shaving foam to show my thoughts about sexuality. Second picture is called “Scale-the way I treat myself”. The picture shows my feet stepping on an old scale. I have a habit of scaling my weight in the morning and deciding whether to eat or not during the day. This habit lasted about 8 years now, and I thought that this habit can explain well about myself; I am harsh and strict to myself. Third picture depicts a broken carrier. The title is “Birth of positive mind-optimism as a defense mechanism”. I think optimism is a physical way to protect oneself from breaking down when facing a fatal tragedy. When I was transferring from Paris to Zurich, my carrier broke down. I had no solution for that situation and my trip was about to fall apart by this tragedy. Then I became positive, rather more like optimistic about this problem because without it, I could not bear all the troubles. This shows different perspective from others, and myself critical about everything. Finally, the last picture depicts a ragged blanket. This picture, “habit of depressed feeling”, best explains my most important period of time. I usually sleep when I feel stressed out. Whenever I wake up after sleeping with anguish, the blankets looks troubled too. This relates to my experience of failure in my 20, which made be depressed and sleep a lot. However, I think that this period in my life is the most important time for me as it made me mature. Therefore, I thought that this picture can explain a lot about me. 

 

 

Project "SELF"