EL OTRO, EL MISMO
EL OTRO, EL MISMO
I aim to capture the essence of human experience in my photographs, exploring fundamental concerns such as mortality, solitude, freedom, and meaning of life — truths of life that shape our existential conflicts.
[1][2]- Chun Wang
[1] The title of the series "EL OTRO, EL MISMO" is derived from Jorge Luis Borges' book of the same name, which translates to "The Other, The Same."
[2] Yalom, Irvin D. Existential Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books, 1980. According to Dr. Yalom, there are four ultimate concerns - death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness:
Death. The most obvious and easiest to understand ultimate concern is death. We exist now, but one day, this existence will end. Death will arrive as scheduled, with no escape. This is a terrifying truth that can provoke immense fear in us. In the words of Spinoza, "Every thing strives to persist in its own being"; and a core conflict of existence is the tension between the awareness of the inevitability of death and the desire to continue living.
Freedom. Another ultimate concern that is relatively harder to understand is freedom. Generally, we regard freedom as an unquestionably positive concept. Haven't humans always longed for and fought for freedom throughout history? However, from an ultimate perspective, freedom is coupled with anxiety. In terms of existence, "freedom" means the absence of external structures. Contrary to everyday experience, humans do not enter (and leave) a universe with an inherent design, highly structured. In fact, individuals are fully responsible for their own world, life design, choices, and actions — that is, individuals are the creators of their own worlds. "Freedom," in this sense, carries a terrifying implication: it means that the ground we stand on is not solid — there is nothing, it is empty, a bottomless abyss. Thus, a key existential dynamic conflict is the conflict between our rootless situation and our desire for roots and structure.
Existential Solitude. The third ultimate concern is solitude — not the interpersonal solitude accompanied by loneliness, nor the inner solitude of being isolated from other parts of oneself, but a fundamental solitude — isolated from life and the world — beneath all other solitudes. No matter how close we become to each other, there remains an ultimately insurmountable chasm; each of us enters this existence alone and is destined to leave alone. On one hand, there is our awareness of our absolute solitude; on the other hand, there is the desire for contact, protection, and to be part of a larger whole. The existential conflict is the tension between these two aspects.
Meaninglessness. The fourth ultimate concern or established fact of existence is meaninglessness. If we are destined to die, if we construct our own worlds, if everyone is ultimately alone in an insignificant world, then what is the meaning of life? Why should we live? How should we live? If there is no pre-designed blueprint for us, then each of us must construct our own meaning in life. However, can a meaning created by oneself be strong enough to enable one to endure life? Humans, beings in search of meaning, are thrown into a universe that is inherently meaningless, and thus, existential dynamic conflict arises from a dilemma.