In this work, I treat the frame as an independent medium rather than a subsidiary structure serving the painting.

Traditionally, the frame functions to protect, display, and define a painting. It determines the boundaries of viewing and subtly regulates the way viewers engage with an image. Therefore, the frame is not only a physical structure but also a structure of power. By establishing relationships between inside and outside, primary and secondary elements, and systems of value, it organizes and controls the painting.

In this work, I break the established hierarchical relationship between the image and the frame, allowing the two to merge into a unified whole. The frame is no longer a peripheral element serving the painting but becomes part of the content of the work itself.

To achieve this, I subject the frame to a process of “naturalization.” By imitating the textures, cracks, and irregular organic forms produced through the growth of trees, the frame takes on an appearance resembling natural materials. It emphasizes the traces of time embedded in the wood itself, the marks of labor left by hand carving, and the inherent imperfections of the material.

This strategy of imitating nature is not a complete rejection of industrialization, but rather a resistance to the standardized logic of industrial production. Industrial products often pursue uniformity, smoothness, and reproducibility while attempting to erase the traces of time. In contrast, the frame I construct retains the contingency and historicity of materials, allowing viewers to become aware of their origins and processes of formation.

However, this naturalization does not imply the disappearance of power.

Although the altered frame appears to weaken its original controlling function, no longer providing a clear and stable viewing path or emphasizing the center of the image in a conventional manner, its nature as a medium does not disappear. The frame continues to organize viewing, produce value, and direct desire.

As a result, this process of naturalization constitutes a disguised form of power. It reminds me of the many forms of product packaging and visual strategies in contemporary society that appear under the labels of “natural,” “eco-friendly,” or “organic.” Their natural appearance makes them seem gentle and harmless, yet they continue to operate according to the same capitalist logic. Power has not disappeared; it has simply become softer and more difficult to perceive.

The image itself borrows from Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son.

In the original painting, Saturn devours his son out of fear of losing power, presenting an extreme manifestation of violence driven by the desire for control and authority.

In this work, however, the image is reinterpreted through Freud’s model of psychic structure.

Freud proposed that personality consists of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Superego represents internalized social norms, moral standards, and structures of authority. The Id represents primal desires, impulses, and vital energy, while the Ego continually negotiates between the two.

The frame is treated as a symbol of the Superego.

It functions both as an embodiment of external rules and as a form of social order internalized by the individual. Through naturalization, it no longer appears in an overtly coercive form but instead exists as something gentle, reasonable, and even “natural.” Precisely because of this, it becomes easier for it to enter the individual and continue suppressing the expressions of the Id and the Ego.

The zone where the image and frame merge therefore becomes a space of psychological conflict. The desires of the Id and Ego continually attempt to break free, while the Superego continues to exert influence in ways that appear harmless.

The sense of oppression within the work does not arise from explicit violence, but from a more concealed mechanism of control—those structures of rules packaged as politeness, norms, aesthetic standards, social expectations, and even modes of looking.

Such structures may not cause direct harm, yet they continuously shape individual behaviour and perception, turning repression into an everyday condition.

Therefore, Framed Saturn Devouring His Son is not only concerned with power itself, but with how power continues to operate after it has been naturalized. When control no longer appears in a coercive form and instead disguises itself as something self-evident and inevitable, it becomes more stable and more difficult to detect.