Faculty of Art

Drawing and Painting

Adriana Lee

Components of Utopia

My painting depicts my idea of utopia and its creation process; the world I imagine as a beautiful mess. I explore the concept of continuity and uncertainty of time and space to understand how to create the future and its coexisting possibilities. The shape of the futureis like a pile of the past, and the present consists of numerous decisions that determine itsdirection. I see achieving utopia as building a beautiful balance when seeing from adistance and containing complexities and movement inside the concise structure. I capture the present moment of pursuing the ideal direction by observing existing and conflicting elements coexist to form my imaginary, ideal world.I referenced science fiction, including Le Papillon des étoiles to visualize the theoretical ideas and chose the butterfly as a symbol for the movement and directions. The butterfly in my background represents liberty and new life, and I intend to build a shared future by reinterpreting this universal symbol as a vision. I describe the stability of conflicting moments by returning to simple shapes and chose to include within the square representing ultimate balance and a circle showing eternal continuity. I aim to express the fictionality and delicacy of this world by describing the shadow's transparency as if it is a snow globe and using it as a path connecting reality to the ideal world.I understand my confusion by realizing its smallness, and I want to share the motivationfrom the imaginary world achieved by overcoming this transition period. I am inspired byscientific evidence of an abstract idea: the present exists as an extension of the past, butthe future may or may not be. I want my work to show that the components of utopia are the belief in future change and the encouragement for today's transformation.