Unknown

Color Reduction Woodcut

Printmaking

Image Size:

Sheet Size:

Paper:

Edition:

Exhibited:

Award:

2019

Unknown — Statement

Forced to Survive examines survival not as resilience or heroism, but as a condition imposed by external forces.

Across the series, fragmented bodily traces, repetitive marks, and compressed pictorial structures appear within restrained black, gray, and muted yellow tones. The imagery suggests systems of pressure, containment, and circulation—spaces where movement exists, yet choice is limited. Figures emerge only partially, often reduced to traces, shadows, or mechanical gestures, emphasizing existence under constraint rather than individual identity.

Survival here is not depicted as progress or escape. Instead, it is shown as a sustained state of endurance, shaped by structuralUsing this seemingly neutral value as its point of departure, the series employs plants and insects as stand-ins for life, tracing states of growth, suspension, and restriction.

The works maintain a restrained black-and-white visual structure, referencing the language of medical records and systematic observation. In doing so, life is presented not through emotion or narrative, but as something regulated, monitored, and contained within constructed systems.

Rather than depicting death itself, the series focuses on a critical moment in which life still persists, yet is already surrounded by structural forces that define its limits.