Empathy devices are a series of sculptures I began for my Master’s thesis, exploring the purpose of large artistic constructs like the Greek Parthenon, Mesopotamian gardens, churches, and modern-day theaters, cinemas, and VR/AR technologies. I was particularly motivated by the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, where to enter, visitors must first spend 30 minutes in a climate-controlled room to adjust their body temperature to that of the chapel’s interior, thus preventing humidity fluctuations that could damage Giotto’s exquisite frescoes. This preparation allows visitors a 15-minute immersion in pure art, leaving with lasting impressions from Giotto’s work.
The Empathy Device series acts as a bridge where users can partially become part of the art and simultaneously remain as observers. This specific project, a mechanical dragon-like sculpture inspired by scrapped airplanes, invites the audience to interact by entering inside and leaving graffiti on its surface. There’s no explicit message or invitation, just graffiti spray cans and a blank canvas. It was hard to believe that in a downtown area, known for its pristine order, people would engage in graffiti on a publicly exhibited sculpture, but this indeed occurred after just one day of exhibition.
Within the sculpture, there was a message directed at internal emigrants, young individuals reluctant to engage with external life, pushing themselves into an internal microenvironment with the feeling that their time to step forward will never arrive. This message, ‘Your time is up,’ serves to challenge and provoke thought my personal position at that time.