0>1 ESC 2034 OPEN CALL
Untitled (Hang Loose Sweet Apple), 2024
For over a decade, I have been a consumer of Apple Inc.’s technology. Yet, for nearly the entirety of my thirty years of life, I have also consumed apples as food. The image of the apple is deeply ingrained in cultural consciousness: from the myth of Newton’s apple and the discovery of gravity, to its role as a symbol of temptation, desire, and the original sin in the story of Adam and Eve.
Untitled (Hang Loose Sweet Apple) reflects on this duality, examining how technology is constantly tested, reconfigured, and pushed to its limits. On its own, technology remains inert—its significance emerges only through human engagement, persistence, and desire for progress. In this sense, the apple becomes a metaphor for both the sweetness and tension of our relationship with tools that promise ease, yet demand our constant attention.
At the upper left corner of nearly every keyboard lies the “Escape” key—a command often interpreted as stop, cancel, or exit. Yet in reality, pressing ESC rarely grants true escape: the screen remains before us, holding us captive in work, social media, or games. This work speculates on a different scenario: what if pressing ESC could trigger an authentic break? Imagine the screen flipping, forcing a pause, offering instead a glass of fresh apple juice—an escape into the tangible and sensory world beyond the digital.
The installation combines distinct elements of daily life: an iMac computer suspended upside down with tie-downs, projecting looping videos of falling apples. Gravity, food, and technology converge in a disorienting yet playful juxtaposition. The inversion of the computer disrupts its conventional function, while the apples in free fall recall both natural laws and symbolic weight. The result is an encounter where viewers are invited to reflect on the fragile balance between nature and technology, presence and distraction, utility and desire.
The work also poses a speculative question: in a decade, will screens and devices hover around us, anticipating our thoughts, desires, and needs—perhaps even providing sustenance as seamlessly as offering a sweet apple?
https://youtu.be/4K1r1Cj3V4I
