The Sovereignty of Thought
Installation
PANG Kwan Chi, Tiffany 彭君慈
2020 BAS New Media graduate
Abstract
Have you ever experienced people around you telling what you should do or what you shouldn’t do? In the process of growth, we have been indoctrinated various beliefs and values. However…who is the one that owns the right of controlling your thought? Sovereignty of Thought – an installation art presents the process of instilling various ideas or beliefs in the form of injection, which questions about the sovereignty over your own thought.
Description
The Sovereignty of Thought presents the concept of indoctrination and polarised thinking. The work is mainly composed of two parts, one is the jelly egg, the other is the injectors. Egg as a metaphor for the human being as it is like an embryo. It represents life as well as the early embryonic state. In Egyptian myth, eggs played a symbolic role of Creation. Also, it became a symbol of life because it encloses nascent life to emerge from it. For the injectors, it presents the others. Others try to impose different thoughts on you. And liquid represents a person’s thought as thought is shapeless and it is easy to penetrate like water. Apart from this, the idea of polarised thinking has been included in this artwork because the indoctrinated person cannot evaluate and examine the truth and falsity of the indoctrinated beliefs and values. Therefore, the person only accepts one perspective of thinking, which he/she has gradually lost his thinking power as his thought is derived from others. Finally, the work presents a creepy and strange atmosphere which is like doing an experiment of injecting thoughts into a human being.
Artist Statement
Have you ever experienced that someone around you tries to persuade you about what you should do or what you shouldn’t do? In the process of growth, people around attempts to indoctrinate you with different thoughts, especially in the parent-child relationship. In the end, we may lose ourselves under such imperceptible influences.
The Sovereignty of Thought is an installation which presents the process of instilling various ideas or beliefs in the form of injection. It presents the idea of “inception” through the use of egg as a metaphor for the human being and an early embryonic state. Since we were born, we have always heard that different people inculcate us with various values and beliefs. For example, being rich is successful, vice versa.
This work is inspired by personal experience. I grew up in a traditional family that parents love to control everything we do or think. Every day I witness my little brother was indoctrinated with various ideas or beliefs by my family. For example, my mother said to my brother about his handwriting, which is “your handwriting is ugly, you are a failure”. After some time, I realised that my brother’s thoughts and behaviour had been changed, which is accepting the beliefs instilled by my parents.
I hope this artwork can let the public feel how they can brainwash a being from the very beginning of life by giving the audience a sense of responsibility and little guilt.
