Laocoon and His Sons (2020-2021)

The ancient Greek sculpture in the Vatican was long believed to be original. It is assumed that a bronze original existed before, but was destroyed. People from the discovery of this sculpture started making many duplicates, praising the beauty this sculpture had. The beautiful duplicates became a symbol of wealth and honor then. The name of the Greek mythology is transmitted until now. Nowadays, it is not hard to find a 3D data of this duplicates. I parodied this work through used Tetra pak. I thought this would be an appropriate mean to point out the spirit and the false mythological awareness of today. I heard criticism about this work. Many recognize the materials as waste. I will explain this work by criticizing the critics.

The difference between ornaments and art.

What we use, how we use it and what we make. These are very important questions. These are information interpreting modern art. The communication methods are a choice of the artists. Ornaments that are just beautiful do not meet these questions. Nothing is analyzed in the work through the crowd’s eyes. Ornaments cannot give a sense of intention.

1. Material
1-1.This is physically connected to the making process. The way we handle the material is also linked to the finished goods. The material is important. Tetra pak is a cylinder holding products that are consumed. It has the information of the product on it. Also there are designs to stimulate consumption. This is disposed after consuming the product. If you didn’t realize this, you cannot understand this work and my intentions.
1-2. This is a parody. The target is saved as a 3D data. This digital data is the material of this work. The reason this was chosen is explained above.

2. Method
A 2D plan of a sculpture in digital space was printed out through a program called Pepakura. In this process the shape has turned into a Polygon. The consumed material was then cut into pieces and glued together.

3. What
This is a sculpture. This is so famous that further explanation is useless.
If the statue was made of glass or metal as they claim, someone might have paid a lot of money because it is a beautiful ornament. The false sense of people is revealed for those who think this material is just some waste. Expensive things have become good products today. The reason is simple. Material has taken place of authority. Easily said, the reason to be expensive has faded. For some reason, the existing value has disappeared, so it has become an era where expensive things are perceived as good. Among the critics, no one seemed to know the difference between authority and power. In fact, this is shown in the eastern world, as their modern spirit is shallow. That's why they could only cling to the decorative elements of the work. Here is a statue cloned with Tetra pak. The beauty of the sublime from ancient Greece is equally transmitted. Their god is just material. Material stimulates human desire. Consumption has become a form of worshipping material and this is the spirit of today. As materialistic worship is spread, consumption replaced religious practice. Human behavior only satisfies human needs, which is why it can be found in all religions. Their myths are religious. I am not criticizing capitalism, to be honest. People misunderstood this as a criticism of capitalism because they didn’t understand what capitalism was. It is impossible for them to understand this in denial of the modern spirit. I hope they realize why disintegrationism has emerged in history and what they are serving is nothing more than the material itself. This is my opinion.