The Looking Glass
Artist's Statement
The idea of representation </b> of things has always been very beguiling to me, due to my tendencies to question ordinary objects and everyday situations beyond what they appear to be. Since 2002, the year I started dabbling in oils, my works have involved representations of objects in series of still-life paintings. Done in oils and acrylics, these paintings seek to represent common objects in a different light, creating meanings and narratives detached from familiarity. Seemingly mundane subjects, have been exploited, more as a medium, to fracture understanding, which more often than not, acts as a veil obstructing us from seeing past what the eye can see. Through painting objects, I have discovered the efficacy in portraying conventional subjects. These subjects, devoid of symbolization, forces the use of visual associations when viewed, creating a complex set of definitions, forming abstract anecdotes. One of my early works chosen for exhibition in Groundwork, Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, 2004, entitled Jungle!, demonstrated the effective use of these conventional subjects quite clearly.
In 2007, my works developed and evolved to images of human figures and landscapes in mixed media, pushing this medium of familiarity as alter-egos or costumes, the use of which is vital in my interests in questioning the role of the human body, and the utilization of it as sociopolitical depictions.
These developments and experimentation in my works have been incessant and is prominent in my current work entitled Motion Without Sequence, in which multiple layers of representations are manipulated, abstracted and translated through photography, videography and traditional media. Through objects in motions, my work seek to capture representation as a whole and complete process, utilizing these motions as acts of drawings. These drawings seek to question the notion of representation itself, simultaneously act as abstract images which hold its own set of ambiguity and narratives.
Currently I am working on a study of navigational phenomenology through everyday transitions and journey. The focal point in this study is the experience of what the body is being put through as it negotiates itself through a given terrain. Isolation of mundane objects in this study remove its functions forcing them as signs and tools of wayfinding in relation to cartographies.
Since Groundwork, I have participated in exhibitions, such as Pandora's Box, Front Room Gallery, 2007 and Toni and Guy Graduation Show,2007, commissioned works in various schools and organizations including SPCA, Singapore and assisting various international artists in Singapore Bienalle, 2007.
