Walking Backwards in Times Square

‘Wonderland’ is a video created by digital media artist Hye Yeon Nam. She is best known for her work in kinetic sculpture, audio and video. According to her website, “her artwork reflects on human (e)motion, identity, and social issue”.

Her recent submission to the Metropolis Art Prize 2009 has surfaced online, showing her walking backwards in New York’s Times Square.

A Daily Dose Of Architecture reports:

“The artist describes the apparent backwards movement of everybody but her as an “attempt to convey the feeling of displacement [related to her move from Korea to the US] and conformity by acting of walking.” Her approach to thinking about space is quite interesting, “for me, I understand space as the sum of cultural and social forces that act on me. Through the space, my body feels all changes around me instantly and intimately.”

The visual results are intriguing; the way she moves through the crowd is both tranquil and jarring; the end product, if not entirely profound, is certainly amusing to watch, especially if you pay some attention to people’s response to the event.

Watch the video below: