Between #12_Unspoken Utopia

The Forbidden Fruit that Led to Between

A Gray Space That Straddles Two Countries and Two Worlds

Between #12_Unspoken Utopia was created with the Garden of Eden as its motif. In the artwork, the figure, who appears as a self-portrait, looks directly ahead while holding the forbidden fruit, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Behind the figure stands a single barren tree with no leaves, and hanging from its branches are fruits covered with the American flag and an image from a passport. A black snake wraps itself around the tree, and in the sky, a bald eagle looks down on the scene.

One of Background scenery from Between #12_Unspoken Utopia.

If you look closely at the fruit held in the figure’s hand, it has the phrase 'I VOTED TODAY' printed on it. In the U.S., this sticker is given to people who have voted as a symbol of their participation. Voting is a privilege and a responsibility that only American citizens can enjoy. This sticker is not just about voting; it becomes a symbol of being a fully recognized member of the country under the law. Therefore, the fruit in this image is not merely the fruit of knowledge. It represents the American citizenship, passport, and right to vote—all of which are desirable and appealing. It is the fruit that leads to the land of freedom and democracy.

However, the moment I pluck the forbidden fruit out of a longing for the American Dream, I am immediately cast into a completely different space called Between. It is a gray space that straddles two countries and two worlds simultaneously. It is a place where one, as an incomplete being who is neither one thing nor the other but both, realizes what to choose, where to stand, and what to endure as a being on the border.

A pre-shoot self-portrait in the Studio

Unspoken Utopia is a place everyone knows but no one talks about. Eden is not heaven or the human world; it is somewhere in between. This space aligns with the core concept of my Between series—the place where Adam and Eve existed as neither human nor divine, a space where beings transition from the unconscious to the conscious. Expulsion from the Garden of Eden was the starting point of their identity, where they had to take responsibility for their own existence. The starting point for finding my true self—that is the space of Between.

And I am still wandering in that space today.