追花. CHASING FLOWERS. 2014-2016

追花. Chasing Flowers. Chasing Flowers is a series of drawings investigating light and atmosphere through floral still-life. It began in 2014, with a question: “I wonder what flowers — if drawing in charcoal — would look like?” 

The flower motif has been part of Memento mori paintings, and the vanitas still-life tradition since the 16th Century. It added a vibrant palette to the sombre theme, representing a kind of transient beauty, which was followed by a blooming, erupting, luscious decay. As a gesture and a tribute to this particular history of floral paintings, these flowers were drawn without colour, and not from photographs, but while bearing witness to its withering. Still-life drawings that are no longer still, but in the midst of dying. 

To be with, in death, is perhaps the only way to remember that we are always, already, dying. 

in memoriam mortis.

追花. Chasing Flowers, Solo Exhibition, at NUSS, Singapore March to May 2016
There are a total of 13 drawings in this series, 12 of which were exhibited. 

Poppy Wall
2017 Charcoal on paper
100cm by 55cm

Rise and Fall
2017 Charcoal on paper
100cm by 50cm

Poppies is a series of work that stems from the encounter between asian and western flower mythologies. 

Poppy Wall and Rise and Fall explore the fragility of a wall of poppy flowers, formed by brush painted charcoal. Blending story, medium, and form, the pieces reflects on the bloom and wither of group lifespans, and the strength of their defence against forces beyond themselves.

They were first exhibited at “Flower Flights” from 7th November 2018 to 4th January 2019 at Art Porters Gallery, Singapore.

In two earlier pieces, “Defiance” borrows its imagery from the legends of Emperor of China, Wu Ze Tian. Upon ascending the throne on a late winter's day, Emperor Wu commanded the flowers in her garden to bloom, but the proud peony refused to be out of step with the seasons. In sheer fury, she burnt all the peonies in her garden to the ground, and banished the plant to Luoyang, where peonies never grew. Yet, in exile, the peonies flourished splendidly. “Tall poppies” reflects on the term in the Anglosphere nations: "tall poppy syndrome", where persons of genuine merit are persecuted because their talents or achievements elevate them above their peers. The beautiful field of fragile poppies persists and spread; a wildness of ash and poison. "Keep your head down," it seems to say. “Defiance” and “Tall Poppies” attempt to respond to the questions, "what attitude can one have to face the chaotic and difficult winds of change? How does one survive and weather the storms?"

“Defiance” and “Tall Poppies” were exhibited at the Visual Arts Development Association (VADA)’s very first “UNTAPPED EMERGING” group show, at ShopHouse 5, June 2016.

Dorian Gray
2015 Charcoal on paper

Charcoal drawing. White flowers.
Representation persists. Reality wilts.

We can never look at both at the same time. The best we can do is to shift our gaze between the two. Our eyes are caught by the image, composed precisely to arrest our attention. And as we are distracted by the picture, by making pictures of this picture, by reading words about this picture, by drawing this picture, this thieving image performs another crime. It steals the time of its masters.

It steals the time we can possibility have with the fleeting beauty of flowers.

A site specific installation exhibited at Destruction and Rebirth, The Mill, Singapore. From 31 January 2015 to 14 February 2015.