Delaney Kim
Growing up , I was exposed to stories and characters that were ‘ whole ’. They seemed stagnant and complete , and were hence misleading . Moral or evil . Strong or weak . Perpetrator or victim . I was represented with cold binaries , and they seemed to dictate the boundaries of my imagination and who I could be . In reality , people cannot be reduced to tropes . Instead , we exist on a spectrum , oscillating between two or more factors . I wanted to explore the different aspects of humanity in my work . Thus , most of my pieces are fragmented and disrupted , essentially ‘ un-whole ,’ portraying personhood as multifaceted and ever-changing .
For example , in Squared Stages , I depicted nine phases of emotion in the honest self-portrait . I focused on expressing a range of emotions , demonstrating the impossibility of expressing oneself through a singular state . The alternating primary colours of red and blue mimic this process of emotional transition and evolving identity . In Between the Lines , I took a more nuanced approach , exploring the boundary between liberation and suppression . Physically , the arched back opens the sculpture outwards , indicating the pursuit of emotional freedom , yet the figure is held back by the cords . This portrays how past experiences can confine us and subconsciously control our decisions . We exist ‘ between the lines ’, and sometimes present desires and past influences are in conflict in a natural tension .
Ultimately , my aim was to manipulate the physical human form to show the validity of internal fluctuation . I want to show contradiction not as hypocrisy but as honesty , subverting the one-dimensional portrayal of self .