I am a Singaporean who began her creative journey as a child sketching a Chinese street opera scene. Marriage and motherhood brought me to America where like other immigrants, I hold a weight of memory and meanings from two cultures. In the decades of feeling as an “other”, and in the process of aging while doing so, I found a visual language to convey the nuances of a shifting cultural identity, as words alone cannot express.
I draw for immediacy and mix media such as water color, gouache, ink and paste. They help me to create layers and instill flux and ephemera. Where a certain fecundity or strength need to be expressed, I paint for visceral effects and create sculptural works with stoneware. The latter gives room for surprises as kiln-firing does often, compelling the sense of being vulnerable and willing to see unintended results. I also use symbols from nature and architecture to depict the journey over lands and oceans, the displacement, putting away the old and familiar and becoming hybrid. With the human figure, I enjoy the subversion of cultural archetypes through characterization such as pensive looks, open gazes, long necks, as well as abstract markings.
Ultimately, I say there is power in an immigrant’s narrative.