Christopher Martin You Lose Yourself, 2025

Christopher Martin You Lose Yourself, 2025
Ink on paper + wood arrow
Unique
14 x 10.5 x 17 in

Christopher Martin’s You Lose Yourself (2025) is a striking embodiment of truth, vulnerability, and self-awareness — rendered through the artist’s distinct union of language and form. The work features a suspended scroll, punctured by a black arrow, bearing the statement:
“You lose yourself each time you suppress the truth.”

At once direct and profound, the phrase functions as both confession and counsel. Martin transforms the written word into a sculptural object, inviting contemplation on the quiet consequences of denial and repression. The arrow — a recurring motif in his 2020s body of work — operates here as a visual metaphor for confrontation: truth as something that must pierce, rather than protect, the self.

Formally, the piece maintains Martin’s disciplined aesthetic — black typography against a white ground, the arrow’s sharp intrusion creating tension within an otherwise serene composition. The curvature and slight shadowing of the scroll lend dimensionality and movement, echoing the inner unease of the message.

Conceptually, You Lose Yourself reflects Martin’s ongoing engagement with mindfulness, honesty, and the human psyche. The work speaks to the fragmentation that occurs when authenticity is withheld — how each act of suppression erodes one’s inner coherence. Yet, by externalizing this truth through art, Martin transforms pain into awareness, and awareness into liberation.

Through its simplicity and precision, You Lose Yourself becomes both warning and meditation — a reminder that truth, however uncomfortable, is the foundation of wholeness. In piercing the surface, Martin reveals what lies beneath: the essential courage to face oneself fully.