Forking Paths
compass, magnet, motor
32”x18”x48”
2018
compass, magnet, motor
32”x18”x48”
2018
Magnets will always point north-south because they align themselves with the earth’s magnetic field. Humans invented the compass by using these magnetic fields to navigate geographical direction for their migration. With this scientific discovery, I had extended it to be fundamental concepts that poetically depict humans long desire of movement and relocation.
Humans have always sought to settle in the better territory and adapt to new societies through migration. However, each time this process is repeated, the community or the individual lose something inside of them. Through the migration, diaspora, colonization, and adaptation, they tame themselves to the foreign land and society, which accompanied an inevitable solitude.
In the work “Forking Paths,” the four compasses rotate and lose their direction again and again.
They try to rearrange themselves and reconnect them to their the north,
but the speed of the motors and another compass which also have their magnetic power
disturb the other compass to reposition. It is an endless process of loss and desire for reconnection,
which presents fateful loneliness that a human inherits that urges one to seek another.
