My thesis during the graduate program 2017.
“Crossing” explores both my imagination of death and my reflections on the essence of life. In my understanding, the universe is not a linear process moving from origin toward finality. Rather, existence remains in a continuous state of generation and transition, much like the bridge in my work that connects two unknown horizons while hosting the lives that constantly cross it.
In an atomized society, individuals are shaped into isolated units, which in turn produces the notion of a ‘closed self’ as the absolute center of existence. This conception inevitably fills people with a paralyzing fear of death. In the animation, the heavy bag that the protagonist refuses to release serves as a metaphor for this profound fear of the dissolution of the self.
However, I see the perception of the self as an isolated entity as a constructed form of cognition. The self is continuously generated and transformed through interactions with others, the environment, and larger systems. If the self is inherently fluid, then death is no longer a singular event at the end of life, but an ongoing process of transformation occurring at every moment. Faced with this fundamental uncertainty, life ceases to be a static trajectory toward a predetermined end and instead becomes an adventure into the unknown. It calls for trust, openness, and a childlike way of perceiving the world, enabling us to embrace destinations that have not yet been named and to enter an ever-expanding web of relationships within the universe. The physical connection among the characters at the end of the work reflects this understanding.