The Cage of Emotions
- A Moment That Never Ends…
Projection
Madmapper, Photo frame, Projector
“The Cage of Emotions” explores the idea that every photograph is an emotional prison.
Each frame contains a person caught in one emotion — joy, sorrow, or anxiety... endlessly reliving that same second.
For each photograph, I created an independent 3D space where the person is trapped inside, repeating the same emotion again and again.
Concept
In this work, each photograph becomes an independent time-space.
The single second captured by the camera turns into an eternal day for the person inside the frame.
They are trapped within the emotion of that exact moment—joy, happiness, bliss, longing, panic, unease, tension, anxiety, melancholy of farewell, anger, or exhaustion—each represented through a distinct scene.
Their lives are condensed into one second, endlessly repeating.
For them, that single second becomes a whole day.
Their emotions and gestures exist within a fragmented space, detached from our linear reality.
For us, it is only a moment frozen in an image.
Second space:
In our reality, time flows as a continuous line.
In contrast, the moments captured in these photographs are extracted, fixed, and isolated—forming what I call a second space.
Within this second space, time no longer follows a linear progression. Instead, it exists as discrete points, each holding its own emotional intensity.
The second space can be understood as a two-dimensional world: the surface of an image where conventional notions of time and space dissolve. Each photograph unfolds into its own emotional world, separate from the continuity of everyday life.
Form / Medium
The installation consists of several physical photo frames placed on a table.
Each frame displays a looping video that represents a distinct emotional state, such as joy, sorrow, loneliness, or anger.
Physical photo frames on the table reference traditional printed photographs—images that exist as tangible objects. They are often associated with memory, preservation, and the desire to hold a moment still.
Virtual frames projected onto the wall represent digital photographs—images captured by phones, stored in devices, and encountered primarily through screens rather than physical touch.
Although one is material and the other is digital, both function in the same way:
they freeze a single emotional moment and trap it in endless repetition.
Whether physical or digital, both frames operate as emotional prisons, endlessly holding a one moment in time.
Goal
This project explores the relationship between recording and being recorded, and how photography interacts with emotion and time.
By freezing a moment through a camera, the project asks whether we are also creating an eternal cage for emotions. A single second, once captured, may no longer pass—it repeats endlessly, trapping the subject within the emotional state of that moment.
The work reflects on the idea that recording can be a subtle form of imprisonment. What appear to be gentle memories may also function as cages of time and emotion.
If the figures inside the photographs were conscious, would they realize they are forever trapped—forced to relive the same second, the same emotion, again and again? And if they were aware of it, would they feel pain, boredom, or exhaustion from this endless repetition, while we, as viewers, see only a still image, unaware of their silent suffering?