Specimen of a Soul
Where a soul goes?
It was the main idea of this series. I wanted to make some evidence of endless life which will continue after death as well.
The source of this idea was the chat with my friend who is studying theatre design. Then, she was working hard for her new project of Ghosts by Ibsen, H. This story is about a family and the chain of their guilt. A family living in Norway which looking nonproblem, however, in the fact that they were repeating infidelity or incest at inside, finally the family was going mad. And some of them died by syphilis. This story represents guilts are taking possession to the person unconsciously like a ghost, and it ties people down.
The friend told me she wants to express something invisible never end even after death. And then, she asked me how can she show this intention with theatre design. To be honest, this topic was too much difficult for me, but I was impressed by the idea of a thing which invisible and never ends.
It reminded me of an experience of body dissection. I did it to figure out the essence of human being, but the dead body was just the same as meat, I couldn't find any divinity to the dead body. Then I recognized that an essence which shapes out mankind is not tangible, and it flies away from the body at the moment of death. In this time, I certainly felt eternal of the soul. This was one of the most significant memories for me. I felt fear to myself who is getting forgetful in everyday life even such the memory changing my life. Then, I decided to make a specimen of a soul because I strongly desired some tangible and visible thing which preserves my memory and my philosophy about eternal of a soul to never forget what is me.
Image from The Critical Analysis of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Part 1
Accessed at: https://english.binus.ac.id/2014/12/23/the-critical-analysis-of-ghosts-by-henrik-ibsen_part-1/
Will Keen, Billy Howle and Lesley Manville in 'Ghosts'
Image from Ghosts': Theater Review
Access at; https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/lesley-manville-ghosts-theater-review-788016
Regard with the process of making specimen, I've chosen three images from the movie Ivan's childhood by Andray Tarkovsky. Those are from the scene which a boy run on the sea after a description of his death. In this scene, He was running with a naked girl at the first, but he gradually passing her, and finally, he goes somewhere alone through on the sea with a light step. In the first painting, the shadow who is running forward is a naked girl and the shadow behind her is the boy. In the second painting, they are replaced. In the third painting, the boy is running alone. In the original movie, he runs over the sea and reunions with his dead family at the next scene. However, in my work, his soul has been cropped until when he became alone on the sea from when he started running apart into the body. Additionally, those continuous images are placed in a box. In Japan, the box which has four corners represents a barrier or sealing from the world. It means, his soul cannot go anywhere and it stops the time in the box. This is a specimen of the soul and the meaning of the work.
Images from The final sequence of Ivan's Childhood
Dunne, N.(2008)’TARKOVSKY' London, UK: Black Dog Publishing pp.306
Ivan's Childhood (1962)90min
Directed by Andray Tarkovsky
Image from Electric Sheep
Magasine 15 July, 2011
Accessed at: http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2011/07/15/ivans-childhood/