Jinsoo Park: Understanding depression

Artist statement

There are many reasons for making art. For me, I usually make art so that I can express my feelings, emotions in the art and by the art. I want my art to be easy to approach, easy to understand, but also want the audience to find more meaning by looking closer and thinking once more about it.

As I grew up, I was influenced by many art and artists, not only by prints or drawings but also movies and books, whether I am consciously influenced by them or not. I am influenced by Keith Haring’s art and pictogram, which influenced how I make my art. Also, I tried to use the least amount of color and subject to express aspects of depression, which are mostly black and white. I believe simplicity is easier for the audience to understand what art is about. Obviously each person will have a different view, but I want to make an art that is easy to approach for audiences. 

I am curious about human’s mentality. What is happiness? How can you be happy? What is depression and how does it affect people who have it? All these questions have led me to make art about the mentality and emotions of humans. 

Therefore my arts are about mental health, especially about depression. I want people to understand what depression is in mental health and understand the pain of those who are suffering from it by looking at my art. Also, for those who are suffering from depression, I want them to feel that they are not the only ones suffering from it so that they can feel better. In other words, I want people who suffer from depression to feel that they are not alone by my art. 

Mental is something that you cannot see, so as mental illnesses. So, many people do not understand how lethal depression is, because depression isn’t visible like a broken bone. Which makes people not take it seriously like other injuries people have. Therefore, I wanted it to be visible, so that it would be understandable. Also, Depression is not just feeling depressed or sad, there are more feelings about Depression. Therefore, each art represents different emotions, feelings and elements of depression.

I used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create art, and printed them out. Size may vary depending on what kind of feelings it is trying to express or size of subject. It is achromatic, monomatic, but not a colorful art . I hope audiences feel less aversions from my art  by using mostly black and white, and using shapes such as circle, and lines to express human shape and depression. Also, by using circles and lines to make human shapes, there is no specific characteristic, which means that anyone around you can have depression. Furthermore, all human shapes in my art look the same, which means that you cannot easily distinguish whether that person has depression or not just by appearance, outside.