My final 6 pieces are the emotions of Affection, Ecstasy, Surprise, Irritation, Anxiety and Terror.

Affection

Materials used: dried rose and paintbrush

I wanted to dedicate this piece for a lover of mine who is no longer here with us. It is frightening to realise that memories are the only things left by someone.

Ecstasy

Materials: Scrunched paper and ink.

Growing up in a very rough school and surrounded with delinquents, I too once tried to dabble with hard drugs. This strip reminded me of what you would obtain once you’ve purchased heroin from a dealer. It comes in an aluminium foil and is later heated up, Usually the heroin dust is never fully liquidized so I wanted to convey this imperfection as a form of ecstasy; an illegal one.

I also wanted to have this piece serve as a reminder of a dark past that still remains haunts me.

Surprise

Materials: Left over found paper, cut and pasted.

I wanted to convey a sense of emotional truth. The feeling of surprise was the most difficult to convey. I found it extremely difficutlt to deduce this sense of surprise. Hence, I randomly picked up a few scraps of paper and proceeded to arrnage them.

I later found that there was a kind of element of surprise through this act of random motions – to randomly select these scraps of inked paper with no further thought given. As such, surprise became as it is.

Irritation

Materials: container cover and ink.

I wanted to convey the idea of irritation as how skaters would. More often than not I would realise that they grind the tarmac/concrete harder when they are angry or in a negative state of mind. Even though they do not vocalise their angst, skateboarding is their language.

I was inspired by my friends and as a result I wanted to portray their emotions of irritation (I am never angry, rather merely irritated 99% of the time).

The result: a series of sequential movements, a kind of grinding action of the container lid against the paper; the result of friction on paper.

Anxiety

 

 

Material: Block paint, chinese ink on paper.

Out of the 6 strips required to be submitted, I wanted anxiety to be the most experimental piece. I was interested at how we use language, words and alphabets. In short, a non-english speaker would notice our words as merely a set of symbols.

I wanted to juxtapose this feeling of anxiety – to be unable to understand the concept itself, a sense of disorientation but convey relief, unconventionally. The words are layered upon each other, to disorientate the reader – akin to how we experience anxiety and yet there is an element of truth. That is, the anxiety itself is only how we understand it. I wanted to portray this ability to convey a message, as a form of expression on how we can play around with the word ‘anxiety’.

Terror

Material: Lino cut, block paint and motions of scrubbng.

The first thing that came through my mind when the word terror appeared was a Man, who’s imposing presence is one that still haunts me till this day.

I wanted to convey his imposing presence as a form of visual terror, how it blackens out your vision – almost creating a tunnel-like view.

The lino cut is deliberately placed in the middle to create a semblance to terror, but the adjacent images are one that acts as mere filler. I wanted to create a strong sense of focus.