The Thinker (2019)

I talked to a professor at the academy about The Thinker. She asked how the form of The Thinker was made. I replied that I downloaded an image of it from the internet and made it based on that. She was not happy with this method. She then replied that she did not like my method and way of thinking. She was also not happy with the paper drink cartons, which were the materials used in my work. The method of cutting and pasting the already completed form along with paper cartons was too time consuming and suggested the decision to use paper cartons did not sound logical to her. Her criticism was comprehensible. She is an amazing artist and I personally think of her work as beautiful. It was also an opportunity to see how my work could be understood by others. I gave a brief explanation of the my point of view and how I understand the world. In today’s world, materialism has become a religion. It is impossible for humans not to consume. I examined the relationship between city and man from that side. A city is like a stadium where consumption takes place. The reason I chose a geometric form rather than a natural one was that I wanted to show that the apple in our society is just a product of consumption. Regarding materialism, Western Europe has experienced since ‘68 an identical revolution similar to the Bolshevik Revolution in the form of positional warfare rather than the established mobile warfare and the worship of material got spread in that process. What is called capitalism today is in fact not capitalism but materialism in the guise of capitalism. This is very simple. The essence of materialism is that everything is material. Materialism is atheism. The union of human and materialism became a characteristic of the modern world. It is difficult to explain my work from an artist’s point of view. Having to show the big picture of the process of selecting, combining and abandoning different ideas was a burden. It is because I have to show others how I selected my ideas, which was not something I was familiar with. It was somehow unpleasant. I actually prefer strangers not to pay much attention to me. The attention of strangers is always uncomfortable. I have never seen Rodin’s The Thinker for myself. That is a very important fact in this work. The sculpture is so famous that many people will recognize it even if they haven’t actually seen It before. This is a form of simulacre. I made this sculpture through simulacre. I was able to easily find the form of the sculpture on the internet. The reason it is identical to the original is because I have never seen the original before. One can think about what originality really is. The used paper cartons are obtained from an actual life of consumption. It’s obvious what kind of product was contained in them. There is specific information such as calories and additives as well as advertisements for consumption. I have no interest in the fact that Rodin is French. It is true. I have no special relationship with France. French philosophers applied the ideas of Mao Zedong into their theories regardless of their interest in China. They did it just the way how I did it. In fact I was only interested in the features and symbolism of the sculpture called the „The Thinker“ which I had heard so much about. The tension running through the body of the man in torment makes me wonder who I am and why I live here. This is not my own argument, but the reason this sculpture is so well known. The question that this tension raises is connected to the desolate mood I felt when observing the relationship between cities and humans. The question is why I feel this desolate feeling when there is an object that inspires fear but it is not visible to the eye. What am I? Why do I exist here? It is because humans are not able to know for themselves who they are. The fear that is felt when separated from important clues to understand oneself is also called depression. From the jokes of the monster that realized this point up until the present, Western society has through revolution reduced the scope of humans to material, and ironically turned it into a religion. For decades, humans have foolishly been unable to realize this and have called the worship of material capitalism. Throughout this, eminent thinkers analysing human beings claimed “You do not exist”. Regardless of France, this is the essence of most people living in the world today.