Trynna Find Somewhere to Bleed in This Shark Tank
Alex Vitek
Death, taxes, and a weekly Sunday phone call to my parents back in Texas.
Of just under four years of conversation topics that have come and gone, a running theme has been one’s ever-changing relationship with self-commodification (especially in the build-up to graduation), and trying to find my way with parents who’ve had more time to reckon with their own versions of the same, ubiquitous pressure. Naturally, these initially comfort-seeking conversations took on different forms when held with others close to me. Showcased in this collection of chapters titled: “EIRA,” “MARK,” “FELIX,” and “MATHIAS” are, at their core, four such conversations. Each participant was also given a Fujifilm disposable camera and the lone instruction to shoot their life in terms of places that have shaped their character.
Fashioned as self-sufficient file folders containing text transcriptions of the interviews, corresponding CDs, clear annotation pages, and reminiscent laminated objects, this project aims to paint a portrait of our sense of self when freed from needing to put on a marketable face. I hope every reader will be able to see a piece of themselves, not necessarily through obvious characteristics, but through the similarities in how we see the world and the many mirrors it holds up to us. Box-ticking similarities won’t make two people kindred spirits, but a shared sense of perspective just might. We can never be short on people and places to find refuge.
(Title in reference to MIKE “Ipari Park,” 1:27)