Title: Watchful Eyes

Series: Materiality Series

Size: 26 cm x 20cm (4×4 panels)

Medium: Mixed Media

Year: 2021

Artist Statement

In my art, I like to capture the beauty of seemingly mundane objects viewed under the microscope. Being trained in both material science and fine art, I see inanimate materials at their most basic form of their inherent characters. Under the  microscope, I can see microstructures of these objects  that can’t be seen by the naked eyes; things that are not there but always exist beyond physicality. Looking past the obvious, close observation and engagement of the subject is my process. I decontextualize these visual of microstructures and then reconstruct them as metaphor to our microsocieties and their challenges.

The Covid19 pandemic has altered our understanding of what constitutes normalcy. The term “New Normal” is accepted as “The Normal”. One of the aspects of this new normalcy that has passed us by is the days when we could move about without being watched or scrutinised. The isolation and widespread adoption of Covid19 contact tracing apps has rendered our every movement as geolocation points on various grids. It evokes the notion of living under the microscope, under the Watchful Eyes but who is watching? Is our very existence becoming one of these big data points or pin drops that can be analysed and presented statistically?

During the pandemic, I felt isolated and detached from many physical materiality, it gave me the in-between space for reflections. I am forced to look into my inner self and tend to appreciate the everyday things that I took for granted.  Reflecting on this has inspired me to start a new series called the Materiality Series. This series is a collection of artworks that bring life to mundane everyday objects found in my studio, the unwanted pieces of canvas, torn and thrown away.

Different mediums allow me to express different ideas as I engaged myself in my process. I focus on “textured minimalism,” which takes cues from both the Western Minimalist and Japan’s Mono Ha movements while attending to an object’s textural and topographical capacities.  In this artwork, the arrangement of each panel is the grid system of our existence, where each one of us is geolocated and traced. I intuitively collaged pieces of canvas in my studio and layered them in structured geometric shapes creating boundaries and grooves in between.  The lines, contrast, texture, and monochromatic colours all allude to the control system that exists beneath watchful eyes, while the sudden splash of red energy breaks the monotony.  The artwork consists of 16 canvas panels measuring 20cm by 26cm each and are arranged together in rigid grids as a form of collectivism for the greater good of society. Whether it is correct or incorrect to enforce social isolation and widespread acceptance of collectivism for the greater good, it should trigger a conversation about the fallacy of misplaced concreteness, which occurs when individuals are treated as mere abstractions that exist in the real world.