Sometimes I wanna go up
"Sometimes I wanna go up" examines the persistence of systems that are widely recognized as harmful
yet continue to structure everyday life. These systems depend on continuous productivity, consumption,
and self-optimization, while quietly eroding personal well-being and collective values. Even when their
mechanisms become apparent, withdrawal remains difficult, and participation continues through
repetition and endurance.
The works approach this condition through slight shifts within familiar visual languages. Images
associated with excess, luxury, and performance are minimally altered, exposing internal tensions rather
than illustrating critique. What appears functional ordesirable is marked by imbalance, rigidity, or strain.
Meaning is not fixed but accumulates through repetition, overstimulation, and contradiction.
Upward movement functions as a recurring structure throughout the series. Going up suggests progress,
improvement, and success, yet within the works it remains unresolved. Movement does not lead to
transformation, but to continuation. Growth becomes circular, acceleration loses direction, and pressure
replaces orientation. The phrase "going up" (turn up) is drawn from underground rap culture, where it
operates as both an expression of aspiration and a coping mechanism within environments shaped by
scarcity and excess.
The choice of materials references durability, value, and consumption, while simultaneously revealing
traces of mechanical intervention and use. Surfaces carry marks of processing rather than finish,
emphasizing function and repetition over refinement.
Rather than positioning themselves outside these systems, the works remain within their logic. They
observe how progress becomes mandatory, how desire is continuously activated, and how relief is
increasingly externalized. Calm appears as a managed condition rather than a structural possibility.
"Sometimes I wanna go up" does not propose alternatives or moments of resolution. It focuses on
persistence rather than collapse, examining what upward movement signifies when continuation itself
becomes the primary objective, and when maintenance replaces change
yet continue to structure everyday life. These systems depend on continuous productivity, consumption,
and self-optimization, while quietly eroding personal well-being and collective values. Even when their
mechanisms become apparent, withdrawal remains difficult, and participation continues through
repetition and endurance.
The works approach this condition through slight shifts within familiar visual languages. Images
associated with excess, luxury, and performance are minimally altered, exposing internal tensions rather
than illustrating critique. What appears functional ordesirable is marked by imbalance, rigidity, or strain.
Meaning is not fixed but accumulates through repetition, overstimulation, and contradiction.
Upward movement functions as a recurring structure throughout the series. Going up suggests progress,
improvement, and success, yet within the works it remains unresolved. Movement does not lead to
transformation, but to continuation. Growth becomes circular, acceleration loses direction, and pressure
replaces orientation. The phrase "going up" (turn up) is drawn from underground rap culture, where it
operates as both an expression of aspiration and a coping mechanism within environments shaped by
scarcity and excess.
The choice of materials references durability, value, and consumption, while simultaneously revealing
traces of mechanical intervention and use. Surfaces carry marks of processing rather than finish,
emphasizing function and repetition over refinement.
Rather than positioning themselves outside these systems, the works remain within their logic. They
observe how progress becomes mandatory, how desire is continuously activated, and how relief is
increasingly externalized. Calm appears as a managed condition rather than a structural possibility.
"Sometimes I wanna go up" does not propose alternatives or moments of resolution. It focuses on
persistence rather than collapse, examining what upward movement signifies when continuation itself
becomes the primary objective, and when maintenance replaces change