walk straight, come full circle

exhibition identity, art direction, editorial design

2024

Walk straight, come full circle is Kayleen’s senior thesis exhibition at The Cooper Union. The show revolves around the cascading effects of continually reassembling memory, which leads to confabulated recollections. These impede true metacognition, prompting a reflection on the elusive boundary between belief and delusion. This cycle results in both self-flagellation and acceptance. The straight lines in my artworks are metaphors for the conflict of self flagellation, symbolizing the struggle to 'walk straight'. Meanwhile, the curves represent an embrace of the obscurity, ambivalence, and paradox of being, accepting that I inevitably 'come full circle'.

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01. Installed works

Reassemblage and confabulation of the past are expressed through sculptures made from house-building materials, building products, and furniture. These elements are assembled into structures that defy their material nature and the laws of physics. For instance, a scored drywall sheet is folded and coated with a wall spackle, forming an origami boat.

Reassemblage and confabulation of the past are expressed through sculptures crafted from building materials, home fixtures, and furniture. These elements are ingeniously assembled into structures that challenge their inherent material properties and defy the laws of physics. For instance, a scored sheet of drywall is artfully folded and coated with wall spackle, transforming it into the shape of an origami boat. Disconnected Bed headboard and footboard are standing on their own.

Window frames and picture frames are suspended from the ceiling, arranged horizontally in a curved line with their backs facing the actual window in the exhibition space. Hard resin is used to mimic the appearance of drawings made on condensed windows. The resin lines on each of the window and picture frames are crafted to appear interconnected, together forming a single arc.

‘Lightest Burden' stands as the centerpiece of the exhibition. A tiny ball bearing, rotating at 1 rpm, twitches rather than gliding smoothly. It moves through the void-like stark black background, appearing to strive for a straight line.

02. Identity System

flattend sphere

Template of a paper octagonal celestial sphere is used as a main symbol of the show.

Sphere is beyond both straight line and circle, the new ideal I want to chase in the cycle of self flagellation and accepctance. Since it is an ideal concept, show does not contain any spherical structure nor illustration, except the 2mm ball bearing of the ‘lightest burden’ orbiting in the void.

Therefore, a plat template of sphere is used. It is Specificallly, a template of a octagonal sphere because octagon has been considered as a transitional shape between square and circle, which symbolicallly means a bridge between earth and heaven. Throught the exhibition, I regard square as mankind’s conflict on earth and circle as acceptance and the state of umbermensch.

Moreover, the symbol resonate with origami and the bloomed flower in the animated flim.
The symbol is tilted diagonal in order to create a square poster, just like how standard origami paper is in a square shape. Textual informations are kept small in a timeless san serif font “helvetica Neue” in order to achieve the ambient yet engraved legibility of the symbol.

source: https://lyncean.education/projects/astronomy/paper-celestial-sphere/

exhibition handout

Spherical, bowl-shaped, or semi-spherical spider webs are rarely seen. The process of their creation is unclear—perhaps a fortunate coincidence.

If I truly believe that I come full sphere, then these spherical webs becomes the very shape of my hope.

Photograph of a spherical web, as well as a flat sphere template is incorporated into the handout design.
The photograph is the only depiction of a sphere of the show
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source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spherical_spider_web_on_Erica_carnea_1.jpg

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