In the Silence of your Reverie, 2020
'In the Silence of your Reverie' explores the notion of reverie and their construction upon remembrance and loss.
This series focuses on the tension created by the desire to give reverie a form of permanence in spite of its elusive nature.
Taking shape of fantasised objects plundered from a personal collection of reveries – the delicately handcrafted sculptures are a bid to crystalise memories passed and embody a lingering nostalgia and sentimentality.
Ranging from palm sized objects such as a pocket watch to larger items such as a cuckoo clock, these sculptures were carefully manipulated from tissue paper and glue in a lengthy and intricate process. The former softly envelopes light and diffuses shadows, while the latter bonds, mends and dries slowly. In bridging fragments of physical time with that of fantasised time, the series captures consciousness in a state of limbo.
In this Labyrinth I Dream of You, 2019
'In this Labyrinth I Dream of You' is a sculptural installation that explores an autobiographic celebration of fantasized time. Using the
symbol of a house as a poetic storage of reveries, elongated garments as fragmented solitary figures dreaming in prolonged waiting,
a merger occurs between the figure as three- dimensional form and the fragmented house as two-dimensional relief as an in-between
state. It explores a deconstruction of fantasized time and its reconstruction by the viewer through the use of framing that frames both
the figures and viewers within the form of a fragmented labyrinth, as a remembrance of being lost in reverie.
I am all the time you forgot, 2017
‘I am all the time you forgot’ is a sculptural installation that explores the relationship between the intangibility
of memory and the vulnerability of the human skin. The installation places an emphasis on the vulnerability and
fragility of time within childhood memories. Using blush pink as a metaphor for time of place and suggestion of
the human skin, it acts also, as a demarcation of a subtly fragile resistance towards the fleeting nature of life.
With vulnerability as a state of loneliness felt from childhood abandonment, the search for companionship
within almost receded memories of childhood objects reflects a yearning to dwell within memories that eternalize
time, preserving all that was supposed to be. The preciousness of time becomes suggested through the preservation
of each object that stand for a fragmented moment in time within a private room setting.
The initial being present in soap and paper towels, in time, transform and depart from its own dwelling, ceasing to
exist. The self sacrificial nature and vulnerability of both soap and paper towels as they diminish after every usage
therefore becomes an embodiment of bereavement and loss to time. Sculptures of childhood objects made from
soap and paper towels hence reflect the state of vulnerability and melancholy within moments of resistance against
loss, where memories transform into figments.
Silent Fleeting Remnants, 2016
'Silent Fleeting Remnants' is a sculptural installation that explores the shift, alteration and impermanence in time
through the use of fabric as a metaphor for time of place and the transience of age. With presence and absence of
being suggested through the physical presence and absence of fabric within the sculptures, crystallization thus,
suggest a layer of preservation over the fabric, which is juxtaposed by its sharp edges.
Through the use of ceramics the fabric begins negation as it burns off while it is fired, leaving only a hollow, fragile
porcelain cast behind which captures its last moments and traces of its initial state of being.
'Silent Fleeting Remnants' explores the subtle relationship between crystals, crystalline glazes and ceramics to suggest
the melancholic passing of time through the continuous negation of being into nothingness through absence and presence,
forms and formlessness.
The installation explores the duality of the lamentation and beautification of the fragility of time and its fading reality, from
its departure from presence to absence, familiarity to unfamiliarity through imperfections reflected through the forms and
also the phenomenon of crystallization.
A Fragile Pause, 2016
'A Fragile Pause' is a sculptural installation involving the crystallization of fabric. It delves into notions of
impermanence and fragility, imprinted within the core of time and the constant negation of being into
nothingness.
'A Fragile Pause' explores this fragile state of timeless reality, within almost receded moments of dwelling,
reflecting the departure from presence to absence, familiarity to unfamiliarity, creating a world born from
frozen time.
The initial being present in matter and objects, in time, transforms and departs from its own
state of dwelling, ceasing to exist. But the presence of its dwelling, when removed, triggers a search for a
new being. Within the absence, the nothingness and silence, it searches for new meaning. And all that is lost,
when recovered, reaches its own being. And for all that is transformed, when captured in time, leaves a trace.
Remnants left from the object’s initial state of dwelling emphasize the fragile state of time and the impermanence
of matter. While feelings of longing and loss are suggested but not described, and traces of partially fragmented
duration of dwelling, appear like an unfamiliar dream, as its fragility continues to draw emphasis on its preciousness.
'A Fragile Pause' places a pause in transformation, time, existence and the negation of being into nothingness.
The Geology of Words, 2015
‘The Geology of Words’ is a two-part sculptural installation that explore notions of the
process of reading. Through the analysis, processing and understanding of information,
words are deconstructed and re-written into new forms of text. The accumulation of text
over a period of time, transform physical books into geological landscapes that are fossilized
and archived within the mind. Text reforms itself under creases and folding of papers, which
form Geological reliefs of passing time. The reformation of text through its displacement,
is explored through the layering of stacks of paper, which create different geology of words,
that are overlaid and crushed within the surface pressure of time. Over time, words and
information that develop into thoughts become obscure. The crystallization of books and pages
create a new visual movement to the displacement of text caused by reading.
‘The Geology of Words’ explore and interact with books and spaces on the shelves of The Ngee Ann
Kongsi library. Focusing on the before and after effects of reading, and the similar archival of information.
The two-part installation consists of dehydrated, layered stacks of paper that form fossilized geological
sediments, and crystallized literature books and pages that form new fossils of words. The installation
is completed with the books on the shelves and the perception of the viewers.
Dialogue in Time, 2015
'Dialogue in Time' is a series of sculptural installations that explore the disintegration of memory
through different dimensions in time. Through the progression of time, memories transform into
obscurity, certain events thus, suffer the process of erasure. This creates a depth in distance which
is further explored through usage of the colour white. In this series, white is used as a symbolic
demarcation of distance, erasure and frozen time. Personal objects relating to childhood events
have been used, as a form of symbolism and representation of the longing and absence; derived
from the revisitation into childhood memories. These objects contain traces of memories that
have been almost completely or partially forgotten. This subtle and complete disintegration of
objects and their surfaces explore the impermanence of memory. The transition of these objects
through various dimensions causes a time lapse within time itself.
'Dialogue in Time' explores in the first half of the series, sequences of different objects and
memories undergoing a lapse in time. Similar objects placed in containers undergo a sequence of
time lapse shown through their positioning, which underlines an invisible connection with a physical
force, that causes different movements and reactions of disintegration, in response to the first
initial sequence.
