Introducing you “The Square”. Seokmin Ko, an artist based in Seoul, plays with the ideas of normality and identity by hiding behind a mirror and therefore using the reflection of his surroundings in a self photo series. The only sign that he really exists in the photos, is his fingertips which can be seen faintly in the sides of the giant mirror.
mirror’s shape is square and of course Ko has an ulterior motive for that. He wants to depict society in his own interpretation as it is today:”Square”. Through this work he believes that each and every day ,either consciously or unconsciously ,we, people, press each other, in an attempt to fit in or we criticize each other in an attempt to feel good about ourselves. Individuality has lost its existence.
The artist says: “We live locked by each other’s view and even our eye views sometimes serve as surveillance over each other. When individual views tamed by cultures and customs in societies aggregate and then serve for views of groups, each individual has no choice but stays as a standardized human being hiding himself or herself. Like this, under society strongly influenced by views of group, a real individual can’t co-exist… We begin to change ourselves to become ‘A normal human being.'”
