The I Love You Spiral

MDF & Spray Paint - Roughly 17 ft x 17 ft - 2022

The I Love You Spiral is a walkable installation, which explores the loss of meaning in the phrase “I Love You”. This stems from my life experiences and societal observations as the phrase has become a courtesy phrase. Something that is said because it is expected rather than because it has been developed. What is supposed to be a significant and endearing phrase has turned into something I dread saying as it is often insincere. The disorienting effect of walking in the spiral is meant to induce discomfort onto the individual as it’s a physical manifestation of the deterioration of the phrase. The walking of the installation also takes the individual on a journey, which begins with pure sentiments that slowly grow less and less genuine. That is communicated through the grayscale gradient, starting white. The final phrase in the black inner spiral changes to “i Love You”, with the distinction of the lower case “i”. This distinction is a representation of exactly how much the phrase has diminished as the authority in the “I” has weakened tremendously.