Paper Book
Tokyo, Japan
http://yoshosu.blogspot.com/p/test1.html
IG: @tinglubookandbox

Allegory Of The Cave
2024
Paper, cardboard, brass wire, silk thread, mirror sheets, dry transfer lettering
14.29 x 7.2 x 0.55

Artist Statement

I was playing around with the structure of the ‘metamorphic book’ which was invented by Daniel E. Kelm. The rectangular shape reminds me of a cave and Plato’s ‘allegory of the cave’, “Republic (514a-520b, Book VII). 

‘Seeing’ and ‘how to see’ had been important in the story. I was always curious about how we see things, this unique geometry structure and the story together were perfect to develop this idea further.

One can read this book by turning the pages as usual. It can stand up and move around. It gave a lot of possibilities of ‘seeing’ just as the information age did to us. Truth and falsehood become more and more complicated to see. So I added the mirror sheets inside to resemble social media, smartphones, digital TV and lots more. 

I selected twelve element words from the story and used the dry transfer lettering on the boards. Two boards shared one word between them. The selected words were: ‘light, shadows, truth, false, reflection, existence, observe, accustom, compelled, liberated, illusion, reality.’

*I had asked and received permission to use the structure by Daniel E. Kelm.