COLE KAWAGUCHI

Age: 24

Hometown: Irvine, CA

Generation: 4th - Yonsei

Biography: Cole Kawaguchi is a freelance and conceptual photographer whose creative work primarily focuses on his relationship with mental health. He strings together snapshots from his everyday life and attempts to find meaning in them—similar to waking up from and trying to decipher a dream. In his spare time, he waters his plants, feeds his dogs, and takes care of his grandpa's farm.  

Name of Piece: depression theory

This exhibition is an attempt to visualize and personify the cyclical nature of depression and to spread awareness beyond the stereotype of being the singular ‘sad.’ It features photographs of four silhouettes, representative of the artist's fragmented self, experiencing different phases of the illness and their relationships to each other. They are tied together by a mirror, inviting the viewer to reflect on oneself, and a fragile bonsaitree, which represents the little routines we practice to grow and maintain oneself that allow us to reap the benefits of a beautiful and full canopy in the future. Depression is beyond one, singular emotion. It is the lack thereof, and it can be happy, sad, angry, void, or all of the above. It is the entire process of living with the illness, and it can be both devastating and beautiful...The ebb and the flow, the chaos, and the balance of it all.