Seals
“ If over a billion Chinese citizens have the same living patterns as Australians
and Americans do right now then all of us are in for a very miserable time,
the planet just can’t sustain it, so they understand that they’ve got to make a
decision about a new model that is more sustainable that allows them to pursue
the economic growth that they’re pursuing while at the same time dealing with
these environmental consequences. So I think they understand intellectually. “
-Barack Obama, President of the United States
Part of an exhibition titled Belong to Whom, Seals addresses identity, as a process of living within a social context, varies in context as a matter of how we perceive the identity of others in relationship to ourselves. At the same time, it produces an interaction between the context and our self-identity in that it creates meaning for the products that form the context.
Working with a quote from President Barack Obama that has been widely misquoted and improperly translated, I question the identity in a narrative context, wondering if identity is the conscious structure between others and myself in a similar fashion, twisting the understanding of a given statement. I question whether it is possible to exchange the identity of a particular statement by reframing the context of it's understanding.
Working towards equally sharing in its reflection based on diverse interpretations of its original narrative context. Can we give Obama’s statement a new identity that is not only narrative, but something that is visual, spatial, and synthetic in it's ability to reveal to it’s readers the intended meaning of its narrative context.