When I began researching about books, I first divided the book into two major parts– the paper, and the text. I was drawn to the typographical aspect and I researched more about how the type was printed on the paper. Through research, I learned about different methods of printing, but what interested me the most was the movable type. While researching about the movable type, which was used to print books, I noticed that these blocks of type are the reflected image of the actual letters. Continuing with this idea, I came up with an idea to design an installation piece, with the word ‘reflection’ as its theme. I further developed this idea by making a connection to 1Q84 by Murakami Haruki and It’s Only a Paper Moon by E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose.
In 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, there are two separate story lines that alternate by chapter. The stories takes place in the year 1984 and In both of these story lines, the protagonists –Tengo and Aomame– enters the parallel world. As the story unfolds, Aomame has several bizarre experiences, and she finally concludes that she must be living in an alternate reality and names this parallel world 1Q84. The novel relates to the theme of reflection because the parallel world is the exact duplicate, or the reflection of our own world. In the novel, the moon is a recurring symbolism of the parallel world because in 1Q84, two moons exist.
Also, in the epigraph of this novel, the author quoted It’s Only a Paper Moon by E.Y. Harburg and Billy Rose.
In addition, the moon is a perfect representation of the theme reflection, because the moon is only visible when it reflects light from the sun.
Connecting all of these ideas, I decided to make paper orbs that has the above quote on them. The words of the quote will be paper cut-outs that are pasted on the lantern, and they will only be readable when the lanterns are illuminated.