Skull

What does this close and meticulous gaze at the skull want to say? Through the frame of the photograph what am I looking at — the skull or its inside? My gaze, like the artist’s eyes, does not end; again and again, I look deeply into the bright details of the skull, into the mood created by the lively and vibrant pink background. I look deeper and deeper into the dialogue between the natural volume of the object and the reflection of the background color — as far as I can, as long as I enjoy it. I become so absorbed in looking that it seems my only duty is to watch the material world. Here, there is no narrative from which I can grasp meaning; there is nothing but the physical presence of the skull and the pink background frozen in the moment of viewing.

Amid observation, association, and history, I come to myself and think about myself — a self that both is and is not. This new self finds meaning in the time-bound vessel of the skull and is everything except something lifeless. Although this self,s emptied of its face and individuality against a shallow, artificial, and popular background, has been erased and alienated from its own reality and existence, still something remains inside it — something deep and silent, belonging to the realm of touch, sight, and understanding of existence, free from egotism. I believe the artist has recreated the bodily presence of the self within an aesthetic experience — the death-awareness of the skull (vanitas) and the dialogue between the present and the past — the manifestation of the ancient in the form of the new — and has seemingly created a portrait of the future present time.