I produced 3 iterations for my final project, in this process I wanted to create a statement of “how people are so tied up with the judgment from the society on the outside, deep inside of their mind they are not truly happy and want to break free.” I played around the composition and different images to illustrate the idea of “Desire to Escape” because I believe a lot of people, especially the people in my age they are so tied up with the judgment from the society. for example, people in my high school often dress to fit into their friend groups. After I came to Parsons, I witness some of my friends became so materialistic, they brought designer cloth in order to be like all other fashion major students. Many people believe material can make them happy, but they became even more depressed of who they are, people are losing the definition of themselves in the society. I want to use my work to express this state of mind about people, how they’re so trapped in the thoughts of others. I want to echo with people about how this feeling is okay because there are many other people suffering the same thing, they are not the only one who is struggling with meeting other people’s stander. I want to make them realize they don’t need to fit into this pig group of “perfect”.
I like the one in the middle the best because it speaks to me the most about the concept. I place the greek sculpture on the left to show the sense of helpless. The sculpture once had arms to hide its naked body but later been destroyed. The body is fully being exposed without harm protecting or concealing. They can’t defend themselves from getting judged by other. Besides the sculpture, the self-portrait is in a shape of a circle, the eye representing the mind of a person, the eye is looking at the hand on the right try to escape. Around the self-portrait, there is a layer of a picture of hands behind a plastic wrap, this represents people are surrounded by the judgment of others, the hand serves a symbol of control, attack, and invasion. The background of the collage is a shiny tin foil sheet that shows beauty, charm, desire, the wanting of to look better. The hand on the Bottom right corner is in a welcoming position, it has rainbow light beam shine on it that represents hope and happiness. The hand invites the eye of a person, represents people who have been traped that to escape from the torture of the judgment from its surrounding.
