Empathy

Empathy emerges from the tension between what is essential in relations with others and what, within that necessity, cannot always be easily accepted. Rather than depicting empathy in an illustrative way, the sculpture reveals its underlying mechanics: as a movement that simultaneously brings closer and imposes strain, and as a process that does not settle into a state of equilibrium. The figure appears to be in the midst of climbing. Its two legs are driven into a rough, scarred marble base, suggesting exertion as well as the resistance of the material, which both structures the movement and gives it direction. In this sense, empathy is presented not as an emotional state, but as a mechanism of action requiring constant adjustment. At the same time, the sculpture carries a private, only partially revealed code of meanings. Its internal point of reference is the figure of a turkey—not as a legible symbol, but as a personal association with excess and with the time required to prepare such a dish. The inspiration for this image comes from the book Butter, in which the preparation of a turkey becomes a multi-day, intensive process of care and devotion, while also remaining something impossible to consume alone. This element remains partially concealed, present more as a structure of thought than as an image available to the viewer. Taken as a whole, the work constructs an image of a process in which care for another person is neither pure nor easy. It resembles instead an unending path, in which movement toward the other is always accompanied by friction, effort, and the necessity of negotiating one’s own limits.