love knot

In 2020, as the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic began and in-person connections became impossible, Yuri Goto turned to dating apps in an attempt to ease her loneliness. “love knot” is a personal exploration of that search for connection in a rapidly changing world. Today, dating apps have become the mainstream way to meet new people, with user numbers growing every year. These apps allow people to search by a variety of criteria—age, height, occupation, income, education, personality, views on love, and more—offering seemingly endless possibilities for connection.
Yet, in this world of efficiency and choice, individuals are often treated as impersonal data, as if they were items in an online catalog where everyone is replaceable and endlessly sortable.
Within such a system, how do we truly encounter someone irreplaceable and form a genuine bond? This work explores the nature of modern encounters through her personal experiences. She matched with 200 people through dating apps and exchanged contact information with nine of them. The resulting work consists of nine smartphone-shaped books, each housed in an individual box and dedicated to one of the nine men she met. Each man is assigned a specific image color, and the boxes are numbered in the order in which she met them. By reading the books in sequence, viewers can follow the progression of her experiences with dating app relationships. The work allows viewers to physically experience the sensation of changing partners, as if switching to a new smartphone. Each book pairs private posts from her locked X (formerly Twitter) account—detailing her experiences with love on the app—with images that serve as representations of those feelings. The pages can be turned both left and right, echoing the gesture of swiping through profiles on a smartphone. Reflecting the number of matches she made, “love knot” will be released as a limited edition of 200 copies. The term “love knot” refers to a bow made by tying a ribbon or string, and in English, it symbolizes an eternal bond—its shape also resembling the infinity symbol (∞).It reflects both the hope that “the love I found through the app will last forever,” and the opposing thought, “If it ends, I may return to the app in search of a new love, repeating this cycle over and over again.” These conflicting feelings are intertwined within the title. This special, limited-edition artist’s book is handmade by the artist.
 ”love knot” I started using dating apps out of the loneliness of a life where I couldn’t meet people.
It was always on sleepless nights that I opened the app.
I was looking for someone who could erase this loneliness.
Profiles with photos randomly appeared on the screen of my phone.
NO and LIKE, I swiped my finger left and right on a whim and matched up with someone.
I could see that that person had seen my profile and swiped in the same way.
There were nights when I could sleep just because of that. Of the 200 men I matched with, I exchanged contact information with nine of them. This is a love story I may have experienced.
Dreaming of the person of my destiny, I send a message. Yuri Goto