Playing With Fire | Frozen Fire

Playing With Fire | Frozen Fire (original design using timber)

This maquette model briefly summarizes what Marina Abramović represents to me after watching The Artist is Present (2012) and her dialogue with TimesTalks. It features an island of fire to portray a fiery torch of courage and expression in isolation and alienation from the world, mysterious but undying. Her art is her life, vice versa. A performer who constantly evolves in her artistic forms, she is bold, aggressive, unexpected, strong-willed but at the same time spiritual and embracing nature, passionate, fiercely impactful in her expression, dangerous, oftentimes violent (particularly in her earlier works), as though an explosion of light burning from within, eternal and inextinguishable. In her later works, she pays more attention to patience, tuning into tranquility and the present moment, pushing limits, and overcoming her weaknesses. In involving the public in her works and performances, she challenges both herself and us. She devotes herself to experimental art, inviting the audience to truly participate and experience life in all its essence. This woman-warrior lives absolutely free from conformity and rules, and thus appears as a controversial figure frequently misunderstood and mistaken. Undeniably, however, she is one who truly dares.

Timber Abstraction

I designed a maquette model based on "What Should Trayvon Martin Have Done?" from The New Yorker.

The cubed cage symbolizes imprisonment — of Trayvon at the moment of his encounter with Zimmerman, of the law, and of mankind in man-made society at large.

The two planks that never intersect allude to the notion of people, specifically Trayvon and Zimmerman, in this case, “walking on the edge” in our present society. It also signifies the abyss between the “should’ve” and the “could’ve”; there is no middle-ground between theory and past-reality.

The pointed daggers on either side of the two planks represent the media and public opinion as well as racial discrimination.

The cross formed as a result of the two planks signify danger, risk and rejection. From the perspective of Trayvon, he was ultimately betrayed by society simply because of his race and skin color. Being only seventeen, he was shot down before he could even fly.