'There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen.' - Rumi The new oil on aluminium works seek to combine 2 distinct styles that I've been working on for the past 6 years or so. They are : (1) The cityscape paintings and the (2) Oil on aluminium abstract experiments (namely, the Surface Tension, Terra Firma and Particle Series of works). I've always wanted to paint cityscapes on aluminium composite panels. What a challenge! Thankfully, 2023 (after many murals - which are great experiences) brings this intrinsic calling to realization. In making the works (there are others, which I will slowly parcel out on the socials) I am inured by errors in judgement, limitations and insight which make the work all the more human. The works are failable, immersive, raw and immediate. There's a sense of urgency - the piece almost falls apart. But it doesn't. It's not there yet, and at the same time it has arrived. A delicate balance. A quiet strength. One can very quickly go from - This is okay (not bad) to complete destruction. Aluminiums are very unforgiving surfaces, repelling paint and reacting in quite unconventional ways. We've definitely got a risky thing going on here. 'Elixir' (Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, KL), 48x48 inches, Oil on aluminium, 2023. Sold 'Untitled ACP04-2023', 48x48 inches, Oil on aluminium, 2023 This monologue only happens to the best of us. When we are at the precipice of understanding everything, yet oddly in unfamiliar territory. We still don't know what exactly it is that we're searching for. It's a place where experience meets wonder. Where realism dances with abstraction. Where strength meets pliability.
It's where structure meets chaos - beckoning more questions. It's disruptive. A shifting of perspectives. A new way of looking at things. These are concepts. Brought into the world through a desire to form, build, create, cajole, ossify. It is the calling that needed to be heard. It's difficult for me as an artist to leave the marks that were laid down - alone. Because it's final. It cuts off all other possibilities. But it has to be done. It's about instilling discipline into the process. It's about trusting that I have done my best. That we've reached the end. But of course, that never happens intrinsically. 'The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.' - Marcus Aurelius
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