Subproject I
A Little Warmth
This is the very first subproject I worked on. I wanted to make a twist to the theme of compassion and instead of representing humans in my work, I personified a piece of fabric. Fabric is often used in clothes, to essentially keep us warm. I imagined how the fabric would feel without us returning the favour, without us giving them warmth. This idea also comes from the fact that often people who help others do not receive help.
Subproject I - wind
Subproject II
Brothers
This project is based from the definition of empathy: ability to understand or feel another. I have this image of two hearts being synchronised when I think of empathy and I wanted to show that physically through coordinated movements. I think empathy happens from the heart so I wanted the senses of the subjects to be covered, which is the reason to the bound eyes. It was also important that the models were my brothers. I think there is a deep emotional connection between siblings and I felt like empathy was relevant to that relationship. I layered an old map scan to evoke the older one guiding the younger one through life.
Subproject III
The Others
I realised that certain of my actions towards people who do not concern me were insensitive. To me, strangers on the streets sometimes appeared like they were part of the streets. part of the background. But just like I am, they are also human and I learned that I should be more thoughtful of others.
In this series, I attempted to show those individuals whose names are unknown, faces forgotten. The subject seems like he is blending with the plants, his face slowly morphing into leaves and flowers. I decided to utilise plants as they are living beings that are often ignored in our daily lives, unless they have aesthetic beauty. But the subject remains human, even though he seems like he is becoming unified with his surrounding.
Subproject IV
Egocentrism and Altruism
I tried to show the contradictory nature of children in this portrait series. One characteristic of a child is being egocentric and self centred. Another one is being very empathetic and compassionate. I consider egocentrism and altruism to be antonyms and attempted in depicting them visually. Egocentrism is inspired by our Heliocentric Solar System. As for Altruism, it shows the child's capability of being empathetic to a doll. I added teardrops and made my subject (my little brother) to wear the same clothes as the doll.
I wanted to demonstrate that even the smallest presence in your life might seek kindness and affection. The location of this work is rather important: the first ideas for this subproject came to me when I was visiting the site of King’s Cross. In an ideal world, I would have it hanged, one after the other at Granary Square. However, since this is not possible, I visualised it where I was, in Paris. I physically hanged the pieces of fabric from the balcony. Our neighbours from the opposite building took pictures and sent them to us. I think the work is more meaningful for that reason. N.B. I did not know them before but my father got their number during this quarantine.
For Brothers, I was going to develop a film from the movements captured by the photos. It would allow me to show the synchronicity better and depict the relationship better. However, I did not have the necessary equipment. So I made the photos to look like still shots from a film. The contextualisation extends that idea: a projection on the wall like in cinemas. As my work portrays something intimate: my brother and photographed at my house, I reduced the size of the projection on the wall. In an ideal world, the photos would be projected would be above a couch and near a staircase.
What I want to say through this work is that we should be a little more considerate towards the small presence in our lives. The presence that you might consider to be like insignificant backdrop in your life: people that you dismiss, people that you think are unworthy. Since we are all human, we should feel a little more empathetic towards them.
The contextualisation was quite obvious for this one. I wanted the subject and the nature to feel like one so the background had to be in the woods or in fields.
I used children as an example but I think all humans are a mix of egocentrism and altruism. I consider as a spectrum rather than being either of the two. I hope that people who these two photos could introspect on themselves and see on which side they would lean towards and improve themselves from that.
I visualised these two images to be in a gallery. The placement is essential in this case. The two would be on opposite walls, Egocentrism by itself, occupying the centre space, whereas Altruism would be along with other works. I consider egocentric individuals to be quite lonely because they can only see themselves whereas altruistic people value others, sometimes more than themselves. The audience is never one or the other, but in between and they are able to move between the two in the gallery.