Oversaturated Streets

Artist Statement and Bio:
The photograph, “Oversaturated streets”, sends a message about people’s greed. This photo was taken in Taipei a few years ago, and at first, she perceived this photo as a depiction of a busy, packed city. However, now in a situation where the coronavirus forcefully promotes social distancing, this picture tends to reflect people’s greed. On one side, this picture reminds people of the ordinary days before the pandemic, teaching the value of daily routine that people so easily took for granted. The people, the busy streets, and the bright signs that shone the dark nights are now a dream. Because people tend to take every aspect of life for granted, people often fail to enjoy the current moment and desire for a fancier life. Now, this photo is a perfect portrayal of what people want right now. On the other hand, this picture reflects greed because if we think that this photo was taken in the current period, the people on the streets without masks are seen as selfish, careless individuals. In fact, in Korea where cases have dropped drastically, clubs and restaurants reopened and the streets started to light up again. Especially, voices promoting extended social distancing are growing due to people who are acting self-centered, walking around the streets without masks on and attending face-to-face group meetings where cases arise again. The picture may differ depending on which perspective the audience chooses, but overall, this photograph contains both people’s dreams and greed.

Na Yeon Kim is an eighteen-year-old from South Korea. Currently, she is attending the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, USA. She desires to create art and design works based on the theme of sustainability, therefore her artworks were shown the issues in diverse art and design forms. Her strength of work is her advanced level of computer software programs; Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design. She also loves to take photographs to get inspirations and references from her perspective. Jessica won recognitions in several art and design competitions, including selected a silver medalist of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2019 in the USA, a finalist of 2019 Project Chungrok in Korea, a silver key recipient of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2020 in the USA and a selected artist of the group exhibitions in 2019 the 4th PASA Festival and On Our Minds, In our Futures 2019.