Wish Forest Documentation (link to pdf file)
By installing the wish tree in a space that people come for solely practical reasons I tried to offer the public an opportunity for a more personal connection to the space and also to alter the public space by changing people’s mood from being stressed out and worried about everyday hassle to being able to look at the bigger picture, i.e., the future and the bigger world surrounding them.
Wish Forest (link to pdf file)
Through this project, I hope to change this rather isolated and quiet spot on campus into a place of hope, participation, and artistic value.
Unlike in previous exhibitions of ‘wish tree’ pieces such as one by Yoko Ono, participants are provided with an opportunity to choose to participate in the creation of the artwork rather than being invited to do so in a gallery setting.
Picture below shows how the public would be informed and invited to ‘wish forest’ by following the signs on the street.
Once in the space, participants make another choice whether to actually participate in the project. An instruction will ask one to write his wish on a piece of paper and attach it to one of the trees, at which moment another choice would have to be made.
By emphasizing the act of will and choice, I hope to encourage the participants to become more conscious of each step of the process of their participation. My ultimate goal is to make them conscious of the act of wish-making itself so that they are more prepared for the ritual, both emotionally and spiritually.
This piece takes further my idea from last self-portrait assignment of the self as an ungraspable and mysterious entity. Searching for the concept of self within the framework of one’s own mind results in an endless chase, while taking a step outside of the search and changing one’s point of view (represented by the clicking of the mouse) might bring an unexpected moment of revelation (transition to a new background).
People often see what they would like to see in others (and themselves as well) rather than their true selves. And just as often people try to present to others what they think they would like to see, making it even harder for the moment of true connection and understanding to occur. The same applies to one’s search for oneself. In a lot of cases what one sees in oneself is the mere reflection of what is going around one and inside one’s head. In this piece I tried to show the difficulty of finding one’s true self, both for the others and the person himself, and the beauty of the rare moment of revelation when they overcome such obstacles as prejudice and misinterpretation.
I have decided to work more on my idea of self portrait being an object that is ungraspable and that causes endless reflections(like two mirrors put facing each other, the ‘observing’ self that searches for the self-identity and the ‘observed’ self that is supposed to be holding the identity keep reflecting each other until the boundary between two becomes weak and meaningless.)
This time I kept the idea of an awkward moment feeling like a long time but with a different scene and more use of short cuts.
(image source: http://www.ovationtv.com/files/large_image_videos/0000/0026/alfred_hitchcock_372x495.jpg)
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock(13 August 1899 ? 29 April 1980) was a British filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. He remains one of the best-known and most popular filmmakers of all time.
One of the most powerful elements of Hitchcock’s films is his brilliant mastery of cinematic cut scenes, which might be best illustrated in his well-known film ‘Psycho’. The film’s pivotal scene, and one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, is the murder of Marion, Janet Leigh’s character, in the shower, which in particular draws our attention to the fact of the cinematic cut.
(image source: google image search “hitchcock psycho”)
The entire sequence runs only 3 minutes and is composed of 50 cuts, most of which are very short and extreme close-ups. When the stabbing begins, especially, there is a cinematic cut with almost every thrust of knife, as if the camera itself too murders and dissects.
(image source: google image search “hitchcock psycho”)
We have no choice but to identify with Marion in the shower, to insert ourselves into the position of the wayward subject who has strayed from the highway of cultural acceptability, but who now wants to make amends. The vulnerability of her naked and surprisingly small body leaves us without anything to deflect that transaction. The combination of the close shots with the short duration between cuts makes the sequence feel longer, more subjective, more uncontrolled, more powerful, and more violent than would a seamless narrative would be.
In my video, I tried to incorporate Hitchcock’s cinematic cuts and use short shots from various angles.
In this video, I tried to show how time can pass in a completely different way in dreams.
I created an awkward elevator scene to hopefully show how a very short time can feel like forever when you are uncomfortable.