Between Intimacy and Discomfort: 'Friend and Neighbor'

[Anchor]

Pop art artist KAWS, famous for characters with X-shaped eyes, has visited South Korea with works themed around personal disputes. The exhibition explores the gap of intimacy and discomfort between friends and neighbors.

Reporter Lee Ju-sang has the story.

[Reporter]

[Friend and Neighbor / Until December 27 / Space K Seoul]

Characters with X-shaped eyes and Michelin Man-like forms are fighting each other.

Against the backdrop of a house fence and in front of a playground, they grab each other by the collar and even throw punches.

The X marks that were where their eyes should be now appear on the fists aimed at opponents as well.

To the artist, the X is perhaps human nature itself.

[KAWS / Artist: They were created that way from the beginning, so I've always felt that appearance is the most natural. I don't think of the X-marked eyes as 'lacking eyes.' To me, those X marks are their eyes.]

Pop art artist KAWS, renowned for characters representing human inner solitude or comfort against it, has this time focused on disputes with friends and neighbors.

Whether a friend you chose to make or a neighbor who happened to live next door, relationships cannot always remain the same.

[KAWS / Artist: But as with all relationships, there is love and various emotions. Above all, there is a mindset of accepting the other person as they are, and sometimes moments come when you see right through their true nature.]

Our society is made up of such people.

However, KAWS offers a glimmer of hope here.

Eleven characters each hold their own painting of the sea, which, when combined, form a massive ocean that embraces everything.

[Lee Jang-wook / Senior Curator at Space K: It expresses these disputes in various ways to convey the message that we must look in the same direction and move forward together.]

We are all someone's friend and neighbor.

Living between intimacy and discomfort, connection and disconnection, figuring out how to achieve harmony is ultimately up to us.

(Video by Nam Il | VJ: Oh Se-kwan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.