Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Wanting to Be Liked

It tastes like chicken ...

We all want to be liked in one form or the other. The same can be said about the unfamiliar space of the abstract. By not looking like anything, an abstract element need not pretend to be anything that it really is not. Everything that one might draw is fake; everything that one might emulate could be real. Something that is real, does not have to be like anything else. It doesn't hurt of course when an iPod Shuffle might resemble a packet of chewing gum for metaphor's sake. The two are not interchangeable. For instance if I were on a deserted island, I'd certainly choose the chewing gum. I can imagine that others might go for the iPod. I'm the wrong market for the iPod as I have insisted before.

As I begin to trawl through my brain for content to fill the space of the Nature exhibition, I begin to find myself in that terrible "like" trap. It is easy to want to be identified with something that is recognizable. To be unique is dangerous and undefined. The key to the successful abstraction, it appears, is to be not-likeable. Quite a pitiful position if you ask me ...

Posted by maeda at September 30, 2005 12:18 PM