1 – Psychotic
Somehow, somewhen, the imagery of the Rorschach test has always been associated with issues related to the mind; of psychosis, of being unstable and unsound, so I experimented with the technique to create Psychosis. I like how it turned out in the end – circles of varying sizes juxtaposed against each other – there is a sort of movement that insinuates the spreading out of the blackness, that each circle will grow to consume the entire page, of madness, of psychosis.
2 – Gloom
I imagine Gloom as a storm cloud that hangs around a person and envelopes a person, contributing to their sadness. With this, I experimented with salt and ink to see the effect of dehydration.
3 – Arousal
Arousal is a sort of slow, fluid building of passion, that swirls then spreads; like warm tea in the tummy. I wanted to use this subtler piece, rather than a more intense kind of print (see below, art card) as I wanted to portray arousal as a more positive than a negative emotion.
4 – Agony
I picture Agony to be a swirling mass of intense pain; of grief. Unlike gloom, which still has a certain softness about it, agony is dirty, gritty and ugly. I used white glue as the vessel for this particular piece, and indian ink mixed with alcohol to create the gritty mixture (polar & non-polar mixtures create happy little accidents). I also tilted the surface of the table by just a tad, so that the slow movement of the glue towards one end could be captured – as of the swirling mass of grief was captured, frozen in time.
I actually really liked the circular composition in the last photo, but unfortunately, life throws you a project brief so you gotta follow that.
5 – Contentment
Puffiness represents the fullness of the heart; of tranquility. I also left a margin of negative space on the left-hand side and tapered the pattern towards the bottom of the strip to imply an outward motion, of flattening and tendency towards succumbing to gravity – absolute relenquishing of control; of feeling content.
6 – Saudade
Saudade is Portuguese for a sense of longing – specifically longing for a love that has been lost, a yearning that is underlined with grief and pain. Longing almost always evoke fluid, far reaching lines, as if hands grabbing for something. In Saudade, the lines and shakey, broken, and numerous in number to imply an unsteadiness of the heart. Shakey concentric circles also dominate the right side of the composition, to draw our attention to the centre of it all – where pain is most intense. There is a void of empty space – an emptiness that you feel (to have lost a love).
I chose white on black (as opposed to black on white) to dark the composition so as to imply a more negative overall image. In addition, I feel that pain is sometimes a selfish kind of thing too – you kind of block out everything around you, and only your pain matters, and only you matter.
7 – Bewilderment
Originally, I wanted to do a piece that represented “Unsteadiness” and in all sense of the word, I blindfolded myself and depended on another person to guide me as I created marks using my feet (by walking on paper). However, it didn’t turn out as well as I expected and the final print came out looking more steady than unsteady.
Therefore, I changed my approach and relinquished total control to the other person, and let the person guide me (this time, on my tippy toes to evoke more unsteadiness) and direct me in doing whatever he/she wanted me to. I was rather bewildered with Josiah’s commands – “And you shake it all about”, “Now do a twirl”, “Large, heavy steps” as he guided me in creating my print, but am very pleased with the result –
Collections of close ups:
8 – Exhilaration
Exhilaration is the sort of excitement and joy that makes you want to dance; to spin, to whirl to feel the wind under your arms. I played with some mark making here, taking an inked string and spinning it around to see what marks it created on the paper.
9 – Disoriented
Disorientation is result of exhilaration – the result of dizziness. The concentric circles imply a sort of roundabout motion, and as they are spaced out, it is almost as if you are stumbling, and the variation of size suggests an ebb and flow of dizziness, as if the feeling changes in intensity as one stumbles.
10 – Darude
Spanish for – the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person. I think good art for me really impresses, be it aesthetically, conceptually or through the craftsmanship involved in creating a work. I’m almost always very taken by work that shows an immense about of tediousness and effort, but in a subtle, effortless manner (white on white).
11 – Longing
The kind of secret longing and desire that you feel for someone or something is one that is subtle and hidden (white on white). It is also soft and fluid, hence the organic lines that stretch outwards – reaching, longing, wanting.
12 – Drunk
Drunkenness comes with some sense disorientation as well, of staggering and stumbling and not being in control of your own movement, and ultimately losing all control and collapsing in a heap at the end of the path.
13 – Grouchiness
The most intense moment of grouchiness for me is when I’ve been sleep deprived and still awake at 4 in the morning. It’s really frustrating – especially when I’m trying to do work (when I need to do work) and there’s just a haze in front of my eyes, and there’s white noise buzzing in my head. But that’s the thing – it’s happening inside my head, and no one else will be able to see it. And vice versa – sometimes you can’t see that someone is sleep deprived.
14 – Wonder
Wonder plays on the sense of childhood curiosity and innocence, of purity. As such, I wanted to experiment with bubbles as a very delicate medium, to see the patterns created when the bubble lands on the paper and pops. Due to the soap and water mixture, the pattern imprinted on the paper captures nuanced swirls and makes the print look almost like a planet, which I really liked as well and plays to the idea of wonder – of the vastness of the universe, and things that are yet to be discovered.
15 – Aggravation
Aggravation doesn’t really come out of nowhere, I think. It has to build up from small intensities. It begins when small things start to frustrate you, irritation starts buzzing in your head, then the annoyance persists to become more and more intense, leading to angry, shakey, intense lines that almost represent a sort of “lashing out”, of irritation to the point of anger.
16 – Distracted
Happy little accidents. This piece was originally planned to be “Systematic” as I wanted to portray the sense of uniformity and systematicness that a sewing machine could create. However, as I was sewing, I realized that the bottom spool had run out of thread in the middle of it all, and as I was not paying attention, the main continued to run and the needle continued to oscillate without really sewing anything (just poking holes) (because there wasn’t enough thread loaded into the machine). The image itself does convey this concept very well, as we tend to be distracted in our work – while doing, we may stray into different strands of work, drift off, or even disappear altogether from what we were originally doing.
17 – Systematic
This reads “I am a product of the Singapore system” in braille, repeated many times. I wanted to create a tactile experience through this work, and so thought of poking holes into the paper – and, why not poke holes in a systematic way? I think the process too, of poking holes to create alphabets in a language you don’t understand – says something about mindlessly following the rules in a systematic way, without really knowing what it is you’re really doing.
18 – Zen
Zen has to do with inner peace amidst chaos – which, for me, was a very difficult to emotion to portray (I do not ever remember feeling zen). But what I imagine it to be, is to be strong and grounded, despite noise and disorder exists around you. As such, I wanted to create a contrast between marks – of strong, definite marks, contrasted with swift disorderly strokes and patterns (all while maintaining a clean background, to reduce the possibility of turning this into a more negative composition.
Exhausted. Finally done.
I think this project really challenged me to think beyond what I already know, and to break out of my comfort zone of trying to do too much too often – not every piece of work has to be defined by immense detail, effort and time. Sometimes, holding back and exerting control over your medium, over your own concepts and work could produce equally, if not more, powerful effects on the viewer. And that is what I strive for – to make art that makes one feel – and now, I know that intensity, immense =/= heart wrenching, soul touching art.
PEACE.
OUT.
TIME TO SLEEP.
