my spirit animal is an excavator
by Karyn Nakamura
I’m very fond of excavators. The ones that are always awkwardly situated on a pile of dirt at a construction site. They’re machines of destruction. They’re big, mechanical, and scary. But I find them really relatable. Maybe it’s the way the little claw being dragged through a building looks so clumsy and primitive. Maybe it’s the way they’re absolutely unfazed and kind of ignorant, always maintaining a slow and careful approach towards the structure that stands in front of it no matter how big or rigid it may be.
I like to put in an absurd amount of time, care, and calculation into destroying, distorting, or making things that aren’t particularly pretty, useless, and kind of stupid. I see myself in an excavator sitting uncomfortably on top of all of the mess I’ve created, trying not to think about what it means to be a productive member of society.
Karyn Nakamura / BSAD (4B Art + Design) 2023.5
