Thinking about coexisting, intersecting and separated groups.

My work approach to the matter is manifested through typography and religious symbols.
Overlapping and merging letters as well as a geometric symbol combining two separate arms into one, the X letter center light and religious symbols exposed in one folded sheet of paper symbolize the indispensable need of reconciliation by reducing social divisions and tolerance.
So crucial, especially in the light of recent happenings.

we have to do something.
we have to look in the mirror.
we have to make a difference.
in all directions.
no matter if it is about humanity, about water shortage, our nature, simply about our earth:

move!

It’s been 50 years since the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons came into force. We coexist together under the constant threat of this man-made technology that still has the power to destroy us all.

Humans learned to coexist in unlikely spaces. The desire to alter these unfriendly environments has always been stronger than any concern about breaking the rules or creating discomfort for others. This me-first mentality is everywhere, this lifestyle is on display – one can intrude and examine from the outside.

To be an invisible part of society, is a wrong assumption. Everybody is part of a living and vibrant system, even when this seems not so visible any more to many of us. The tiptoeing alienation of people – not necessarily from nature – but rather from the consciousness of what your own actions evoke, leads into a
dangerous tilt. Everybody is part of a whole. Everybody is valuable and useful. Everybody equally contributes to the stability of a whole.
Living is a fact aand a, not a competition. When we support tendencies that directly or indirectly harm others, our homes and habitats, we eventually destroy ourselves.

My poster is based on a very simple concept regarding the lack of empathy. To change the current social status, we need to take a step back and look past our ego. The basic typographic visualisation of “ME” turning into “WE” is my response to this problem.

Despite geography draws walls we all share the same room.

What are the choices we have?

An order form for potential life – Even with the highest scientific and medical standards we are not able to design the basic conditions of our lives. »Ouviepo« asks questions about the choices we have and more so of the choices we do not have. To peacefully coexist we need to be aware of the life conditions of ourselves and of others. The conditions, we have to face, those we have to accept and those we have to fight for or against. That is our choice.

This drawing is based on the initiative “Seebrücke” (Leave No One Behind).

The drawing is inspired by the painting »Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer« by Caspar David Friedrich. I use the work as a pictorial metaphor for life and premonition of death, limitation and vastness, past and future.

The “HIROSHIMA APPEALS” poster design series was started from 1983, with new poster introduced by assigned graphic designer every year in memorial to the atomic bombing at Hiroshima in 1945. The first poster was designed by Yusaku Kamekura, who also designed the 1964 Tokyo Olympics posters. As what he had said, the poster series aimed at exploring new view of point towards the incident with a neutral stance.
Inspired by Kamekura and fellow designers who took part in the design relay, I decided to accept the challenge for 2020 version.
It is a poster of an illustration themed “life”. The girl represents my mother at her childhood, myself, as well as all the girls in general.

I hope that we open our eyes and see that everything is related, that the actions we take today will influence our tomorrow. Just as the letters are all different but part of the same family so are we; we are all interconnected, no matter the country we live in, color, race, sex etc.

So, are we conscious of our everyday actions? Or we are just walking ahead blindly? Are our normal habits our best behavior? And how many of us locked into comfort zone? I hope that this wake-up call that has disturbed our deep sleep and once we have opened our eyes we will work harder for a better coexistence, be more empathic, more caring towards one another and the nature around us.

Based on an examination of our DNA, any two human beings are 99.9 percent identical. The genetic differences between different groups of human beings are similarly minute.

Based on these facts, the world seems like a big puzzle.
And it is our exercise to find the parts, which fitting together. Of course, it is a visionary picture of our future to get all parts together, but still we are asked to bring them together as much as possible. Coexistence seems to start in smaller groups, but we should not forget the bigger picture.
Sometimes parts are fitting immediately, sometimes it takes more time.

At the end, it all fits.

Stay home! – I wish I can.
Heard in a refugee camp in Lebanon.

In the future, Matthew 19:19 should be replaced by this then it could be the coexist solution for humanity.

“EXCHANGE” is an installation of words, pictures and sounds, exhibited in Utsunomiya Museum of Art (Japan) in 2017.

Words – in the form of large prints – write about humans’ engagement in “exchanging” since our birth, including the exchange of emotions, materials, information and locations;

Pictures contain 4 graphically processed portraits dissembled in certain orders;

Sounds of clapping hands similar to that of a music concert, repeats becoming unified and scattered.

Coexist of human beings enhances exchange of mutual values, yet there are also times of compromise, balancing and accommodation. Through this artwork, I viewed at the matter of “exchange” as a behavior with costs.

Act beyond convenience
Unite against hate
Rise above ego
Cultivate awareness
and see with eyes unclouded.

An image, a vision or a projection showing a constructed mental landscape which is possible, but has not appeared yet or has not been written into a natural or, for that matter, urban environment, into the outer world, is in every instance a suggestion for new models, landscape depictions previously unknown and unseen. With them, the operation of the “new imagination” can become perceptible, i.e. the method for creating what is simultaneously topical and ideal, what we can call art. This new kind of description of our world and ourselves using a new type of image is also the transformation of the relationship between “us” and the “world”. This image is the mystery of the possible landscapes.

A hand holds a bunch of grapes gently on a fine stem. If you look more closely you see that the berries have faces. This community of fate is held together by a central structure that supports each individual grape, which in turn depends on the holding human hand.

selfexplaining (hopefully), otherwise: it is easy to judge others, but heavily summarized you are a piece of hypocritically shit yourself, so change, pack an, older.

Why can’t we just do that?