Artist Statement

My practice focuses on the exploration of the intimate symbiotic relationship between human beings and their surroundings while articulating the temporality of the passage of time. Time dictates how we steer the spurs and crags of life, how it carves new paths, smooths out the old ones, and wears down our edges. The march of time is relentless. Erosion is inevitable. In harmony with the flow of time, concepts related to disappearance and transformation within the fabric of intimate memories are also explored in my work.

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The cultural influences of my upbringing, growing up in Singapore, inspires this theme. As a country where rapid gentrification is juxtaposed against the backdrop of a monoclimatic environment, time appears to either perpetually repeat or stand still. Hence, though ironic, it lays the foundation for the impermanence in my outlook.

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Process and materiality hold significance in my practice. Through the careful application of pigments, I paint on silk, utilizing the technique of memory drawing and weaving to delve into fragility, intimate memories, time, and the ephemeral. I often wrap my paintings in silk by allowing live silkworms to spin silk directly on my canvases, creating sculptural-paintings . As a Peranakan, silk is an important part of my culture and is symbolic of generational memory. Simultaneously, silk, the remnant of a silkworm's life, signifies the culmination of a silkworm's efforts before metamorphosis. It embodies concepts of temporal existence and transformation through functioning as a bridge between existent (the silkworm) and existence (the idea of being). The way I capture intimate moments by retreating into the self for reflection is also mirrored in the silkworm's cocooning process.

 

Through my work, I hope to create spaces for contemplation where viewers can retrace instances of tenderness and pause.