Doors for Society — SungryulJun

Experiments

Doors for Society

Acrylic painting on Wood panel, 1000 x 500 x 50 (mm), 2020

Doors and similar objects serve as mediums connecting one space with another. They can also be metaphorical, as in the phrase "door of the mind," symbolizing the connection and separation between oneself and others. Our society is a vast assembly of small individuals, akin to a large gate comprised of many smaller gates. Thus, the door represents both the individual and the collective groups and relationships they form.

In a large society, the unified shape of the door appears grand and solid. However, the small doors that compose it possess diverse and often contradictory characteristics.

Wax & Steel panel, 630 x 315 x 100 (mm), 2020

This society may be illustrated by a set of small doors, symbolizing a uniform shape. This does not imply that society is currently oppressing each individual. Instead, this seemingly solid society emerges from the idea that each individual (a small door) supports one another, maintaining the overall structure.

A thin, hard, shiny iron plate shaped like a 'door' presses down on a cluster of wax 'doors,' fragile and likely to break under slight force. This imagery aims to depict a 'society' formed by individuals prone to collapse, while simultaneously portraying society as a system that binds individuals together, contrasting their fragility with the system's rigidity.