Elevator is a technological invention constructed as a metal cube that is completely isolated from the exterior. Elevator often feels monotonous because it is meant to be a space served to reach another space inside of the building. In other words, it is a means to a goal than a goal itself. The number inside a little screen is the only signifier that tells where you are.
During this COVID-19 crisis, you are forced to self-quarantine, physically disconnected from your friends, families, and the outside world. You are required to remain in your own monotonous space, this elevator, powerlessly.
You are in this nightmare: you feel that the elevator is going up; you see the numbers on the screen going up; you are not allowed to leave this elevator; you don’t know when this elevator will stop; Constant fear, constant terror, constant depression, and a feeling of total isolation creep up on you, yet you are powerless. There’s nothing else you can do but to silently sit in this isolated space and wait for this to end.
I want this work to be representative of the spirit of our age as well. Though technological inventions, like social media, have facilitated distant communication, people often grieve how they feel isolated from the rest of the society. Developing from this Heideggerian idea that better technology does not guarantee greater happiness of the people, I wish to capture that puzzling coexistence of feeling connected and disconnected through this architectural metaphor of an elevator.