< Ego-Shadow >


In the book, Interpretation of Dreams, Freud introduces the notion that the human psyche is divided into areas of consciousness, unconsciousness, and preconsciousness. Inspired by Freud’s theory, Carl Jung further explores consciousness and unconsciousness in his book, Shadows. According to Jung, people struggle to balance their consciousness and unconsciousness. Consciousness is the desire to be a better person, and the self is socially visible. Unconsciousness is a dark instinct; this means it is the source of psychological energy—unorganized, blind and seeking pleasure. However, consciousness is sometimes interpreted as a social mask to hide the true self and to perform as a socially good self, and unconsciousness is read as a pretentious self consisting of the instinct behind the mask. According to Jung, humans are living between these conflicts of consciousness and unconsciousness, and these conflicts are described as the struggle to become a better self.

Inspired by this theory, I began working with photograms. My photograms represent the struggle to have a perfect self. In these images, the area of consciousness, which is interpreted as a social mask, is represented in a perfect circular shape, and the unconscious is portrayed as a wavy remnant around a circular shape.

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