Apartment 1
Apartment 2
Apartment 3
CV
In my second year living in the United States, I noticed that the buildings on the streets and the way people walked felt straight and rigid. Everything seemed sharp and measured, as if people created and controlled everything. One day, I realized that even my home, the place I thought was the safest, was filled with straight lines. That made me feel trapped. The television in the living room, the corners of the desk and chairs, the kitchen, and even the shelves were all filled with sharp, straight lines.
I cut Mylar to fit every straight surface existed in my apartment, then stuck the sheet on each surface. I spent an average of eight hours a day for a month covering everything—the kitchen counter, appliances, my tiny desk, the ceiling, the floor, and the door—creating an environment where every surface has distorted reflections. For 70 days, I lived in this space, surrounded by distorted reflections of my body. I often woke up in the middle of the night, gripped by panic attacks as the space seemed to close in on me. The only refuge was the bathroom—the only place not covered in Mylar. None of the surfaces in the space reflected my image properly, and I slowly felt my sense of self dissolve.
During that time, while staying inside the room, I gradually became interested in the outside my door. I especially focused on the poses and gestures of strangers I encountered outside. One day, I noticed a man confidently striding down the street and I felt curious about him. I invited him into the apartment and asked him to recreate the pose he had just taken outside. No names or personal details were exchanged; I treated them as anonymous figures. Then I hid in the bathroom, setting the camera timer to take the photograph without my presence in the room. I repeatedly photographed strangers in the Mylar-covered space using the same approach.
Throughout the process of the work, I felt the tension that existed between myself and the space collapse. It evoked the illusion that I had disappeared and become the space itself. After, I experienced the disappearance of the solid walls that had existed between the inside and the outside, between myself and others. I do not know what I want to say through this work. If there is anything more to add, I will come back then.