이상원

  Jin Young tells a story about people in her works. She has a lot of interest and curiosity about people and their point of views. Especially when there is a lot of information pouring out from SNS and various medias nowadays, she thought of a parrot in the image of people imitating others and being swept away by the crowd's words or actions. So humans with parrot heads became the main characters in the her works. In the works, they're all doing something. They take a walk, chat, and enjoy picnics or sports. There is an atmosphere of a meeting like a religious ceremony, and you can see them wandering in the forest. All of this is what we look like in our daily lives. Jinyoung critically talks about how parrots have the habit of copying, while also showing positive aspects of living together by empathizing with each other, and forming a community of society. 

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Artist's Note

  My work expressed the 'repeating and imitating' tendency of people in mondern society through 'a figure with a parrot head'. Modern people, whether conscious or not, live by taking the role to be recognized by other people in the world. Like a theatrical actor on stage. The parrots in the work symbolically show that modern people mimic, think, and act as others do in the flood of information delivered to the media. Everyone wants to escape from the old form of imitation and copying, but it is difficult to cross the boundary with anxiety, away from the complacency of reality. In urban life, nature exists around us as a limited area of parks. In a city composed of apartments, parks are a place for mental and physical relaxation.

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  Time in the park is like a comfort in the middle of a tiring daily life, but on the other hand, it also comes as a finite space that cannot be escaped. Paradoxically, humans feel happy in limiting their range of activities. The wider the range, the more stressing we may be because there are more worries, anxiety, and desires. We are always at a crossroads of choice, whether to settle down or break down the boundaries of reality like our own island. In a way, the other side of anxiety is not stability, but awakening, and the essence is self-viewing as it is. The parrot people who prepare for the morning joy and visit their own treasures as if they were traveling resemble us.

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  Life is repetition. It is humor that only humans have that can bear between unstable reality and ideals in life that is repeated every day. Humor leads us to awakening and depth, and is a source of happiness by excluding unnecessary things in life and simplifying them into everyday pleasures. Life is like a journey. Where are we going now? When and when will it be the life you want? The criteria are left to us individually.

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