What You Could Be, 2022
Crocheted and melted nylon
45cmW x 85cmH
The title of this work was inspired by the novel ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr, which suggests that we are haunted by the potential of what is lost.
Lace personally speaks to me as a symbol of a mother’s love. Vulnerable, beautiful and pristine, lace doilies are the mark of a mother’s presence in the house, though often placed in less than honourable places. In a way, we take these handmade lace pieces for granted, much like we do to our mothers, as if they will always be waiting for us in our family home whenever we return.
The deliberate destruction of a fragile and defenceless object created stitch by stitch by hand seems almost sacrilegious; yet it is reflective of the relationship many daughters, and personally myself, share with our mothers.
The ability of crochet to forgive— unravelling without leaving any traces— contributes to the heartbreak of it being destroyed. Akin to that loss we feel when a loved one leaves the physical realm, that sudden disappearance of a presence we have grown used to makes us clutch at the evidence of them having ever been around.
800mmW x 900mmH
2019
Nylon yarn (Shaw Contract), Wire mesh
Contact for Pricelist
An explorative work crocheted in a single piece with no concrete plan in mind, this island was shaped as it went along over a period of three months. Experimenting with different crochet stitches, the island is brought to life with ‘geological’ landforms, inspired by the artist’s treks on forgotten islands she once visited.
500mmW x 420mmH
2018
Nylon yarn, Various keepsakes, Foam back
One of the two pieces in “I Walked A Landscape With My Fingers”, an explorative project inspired by various terrain and geographical landforms. Incorporating various keepsakes from a personal hoard that do not serve any function, yet are too precious to throw, the work highlights the thin line between ‘trash’ and ‘treasure’. These keepsakes are given a second life by becoming a part of this landscape.
Contact for Pricelist
Base of the artwork was crocheted in a single, flat piece with no draft in mind, exploring colour change in gradient by treating each stitch as a ‘pixel’ and intuitively switching yarns out. While the overall appearance of the work is flat, the schoolgirl is ‘swallowed’ by the sea, while baby hands reach out of the nearby mound.
‘Drown’ features a Japanese schoolgirl figurine from my stay in Tokyo in 2015. Baby hands were from a broken jewelry piece.
900mmW x 450mmH
2019
Nylon yarn, Various keepsakes, Foam back
One of the two pieces in “I Walked A Landscape With My Fingers”, an explorative project inspired by various terrain and geographical landforms. Incorporating various keepsakes from a personal hoard that do not serve any function, yet are too precious to throw, the work highlights the thin line between ‘trash’ and ‘treasure’. These keepsakes are given a second life by becoming a part of this landscape.
Contact for Pricelist
Base of the artwork was crocheted in a single, flat piece with no draft in mind, exploring ridges inspired by the tiny crests of sea waves and grikes in stone. The work swallows up the keepsakes, much like creeper plants eating up urban structures that have been abandoned. Despite being crocheted flat, playing with various stitch types and heights introduces subtle texture to the work, and one quite unlike the usual crochet appearance.
‘Baby’ features a troll doll, large Kewpie doll and small Kewpie doll, all from my stay in Tokyo in 2015. Pink baby face was found at a flea market in Berlin, June 2018. The ceramic cup originating in Kagawa, Japan was from a friend, but met an unfortunate end when I dropped it. Here, it has become an inverted mountain.
1100mmW x 580mmH
2019
Nylon yarn (Shaw Contract), Wire
Sold
Sirens sing of a lost city, sunk to the depths of the sea. Inspired by the illustrations of Hexacorallia and Echinoidea by Ernst Haeckel, I created original forms, each an evolved variation of the other.
Using 2 tones of each colour, I explored radially symmetrical forms of Scleractinia (Stony Corals). Rather than the bright soft corals, I like how these looked like the work of underwater architects.
From the front, the work looks like concentric circles; from the side, an urban landscape of what could be temple chambers, the work of civilians in an imaginary city long forgotten.
2021
Silver foil wrapper, felt, crocheted metallic polyester thread
11”W x 14”H
‘London Choco Roll’ is a roll cake snack well-known in Singapore and Malaysia. While distinctively London icons adorn its cover which claims to bring you a ‘Taste of London’, the Malaysian-made roll cake contains no actual chocolate.
The idea of London representing the ‘upper-class’ still swirls in the undercurrents of post-colonial Singapore. Is this presence of intricate lace- a symbol of wealth back in the day- enough of a masquerade for the artificial flavours sheathed in its confident shell?
The ostentatiously golden frame was acquired from a photography studio in Singapore specialising in graduation family portraits*; how else would guests of the home acknowledge the superior academic genes in the family?
*It is common practice to have family photographs framed and displayed in an Asian home, especially (or almost exclusively) when there are graduates in the family. The graduates will don the dress of their highest achievement (academically or of civil service).