“Among all the two-dimensional artworks that have existed until now, which piece has depicted its object most realistically?

 

Over a long period of time, human beings have been pursuing ‘how to represent reality that exists in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane’. Various methods of perspective have been invented, but what they all have in common is ‘how (objects depicted by them) appear to the human eyes’.

 

Subsequently, overturning this, methods of drawing that introduced multiple viewpoints were invented. It aimed to get even closer to the reality existing in three-dimensional space by incorporating ‘perspectives that transcend the human eye’.

 

Since then, two-dimensional artworks have continued to diversify and evolve, but no inventions have yet been made that overturn the existing methods (such as perspective drawing, aerial perspective, and the introduction of multiple viewpoints) in the context of ‘how to represent reality that exists in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane’.

 

The question of ‘how to represent reality that exists in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane’ is the most fundamental challenge in two-dimensional representation, and human beings have devoted a significant amount of time to this challenge. I believe there is significance in returning to and confronting such a fundamental challenge.

 

Do you know what a press machine is? It's a machine that processes by applying pressure through pressing. This will serve as the art material for the artwork I am about to explain to you.

 

You might have thought that brushes and paints would be used, but in this expression, no materials such as brushes or paints are used at all. A traditional challenge will be confronted with a modern method.

 

The objects compressed by the press machine have their original forms crushed, becoming flat shapes. The transformation from three-dimensional to two-dimensional occurs. The two-dimensional substance that appears there is packed with everything that had existed in the three-dimensional material.

 

With the invention of perspective, the reality seen through human eyes began to be depicted. However, a method was invented that introduced multiple viewpoints, aiming to depict not what's visible to the human eyes, but further, the reality that exists within three-dimensional space. But, even so, not everything that exists in three-dimensional space has been fully depicted yet.

 

This flat artwork, which uses the press machine as art material, has all the inherent characteristics and information of the substance being compressed directly into two-dimensional space. That is to say, could this not be the artwork that can best represent the reality existing in three-dimensional space as a two-dimensional plane?

 

So, what should be made into artwork? I think it should be industrial products filled with the latest technology at the moment.

 

The tools that are used in an era reflect that era. In today's world, technological advancements are fast-paced, and its transition is swift. Technological products encapsulate the society, culture, and technology of the time. In other words, I believe they best symbolize the modern era.

 

For example, imprinting and preserving the latest versions of fragments of modern society, such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, VR headsets, gaming devices, smart speakers, cars, drones, and robots, onto a two-dimensional plane.

 

Therein, artworks that represent reality existing in three-dimensional space most directly as a two-dimensional plane are created. It serves as one answer to the challenges human beings have spent much time on throughout art history and becomes what I consider still life in the modern age.

 

In conventional flat artworks, objects existing in three-dimensional space have been recreated using other materials (such as paint). No matter how real these representations ‘appeared’, they were nothing more than different entities (fakes) created using paint, far from reality.

 

However, in this new method, the characteristics and information of the substance itself are directly depicted as artwork. As a result, it will expand the scope of ‘reality’ in two-dimensional works and open up new possibilities for expressions.”