Artwork of Yachiyo SAKO
What the person in front of us is thinking is a fascinating subject for mankind since the beginning of time. We’ve tried many different ways to access this forbidden information. There’s psychic, practice of hypnosis, psychology and most current neuroscience. However, fortunately or unfortunately, the door is still shut for us till now.
Because of this enormous information barrier, most of the scenes in life are ordinary to our eyes. People look normal and innocent the majority of the time. A simple smile shows the person means well and is welcoming. A heavy frown and wide eyes show the person is probably upset and an outrage might be on the way, etc.
However, are our interpretations true? How reliable is our judgement? If we could indeed get across this information barrier and see others’ mind as they are, what would the world look like? Those scenes that we’ve lived thousands of times day in and day out, would they still remain ordinary to us?
In this work, artist Yachiyo created a world that we just imagined. The scenes showed in the painting are all common and ordinary, like conversations and sharing a meal. However, the biggest and the only difference is that everybody’s mind is shown besides him or her. Behind a friendly smile, we see the darkened face and hideous sneer. At the table, we see a person with neutral facial expression, but a dark storm is forming in his head, ready to sweep everyone.
If all of these is possible, would you rather take the leap and see the world this way?
