Do Not Disturb

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been laughed at about my name, my grades, my body. When I was 8 years old, I used to fight with my classmates because of it, and I would even start fights just to silence the teasing voices. As I got older I started defending myself against these comments less and less, only speaking up when the comments hit home. By the time I was in the upper grades I stopped responding at all, even though it still hurt me. At 13 years old, I started to realize that those words didn’t really matter, and that I couldn’t stop all the voices. Instead of being trapped in those negative feelings, I could just choose to ignore them, which is why I created this, Do Not Disturb Mode.

This work expresses the feeling of wanting to ignore the harsh words. The things that hurt me are represented in the small talking heads, and the me in the centre wants to find freedom, but I often hurt the people who reach out to me. The coiled snake is always protecting itself, so I drew a snake-shaped headset. Its appearance is a reminder that I can freely choose whether I want to listen to these words or not. I often feel like I am submerged in these words, so the use of water as a backdrop is to show the irony of struggling when drowning—instead, when I let go and go with the flow, I find my balance