Barong Sai

In 2010 I made a Rorsharch out of a false start of lilies by the folding the wet painting into two. The result looks like a lions head.

Subsequently I tried out another variation: of an overgrown stag horn fern that has travelled with me from LongIsland to Vermont. The pattern of the rorscharch seems to match the fauna, a chandelier or a crown of vertebrae, it became a game of trying to match right and left, alternating each fold with brushwork and charcoal. Chance vs intent, peaking at the the point before the paper breaks...an amusement of learning when 'finish' has arrived.

In 2013 I watched the funeral of LKY online and auto-responded by reviving this game of making "Por Mo"破墨 or broken (scattering) brushworks....this time looking to achieve a rorscharch that has no top or bottom, okay to view even upside downs. It was a day of commendable directionless for Singapore.

Garland Merlion 2010 (FOST Gallery)

Staghorn for 23 May 2013 (FOST Gallery)

In response to a recent work made over the Pandemic, I have returned to the device of the Rorschach -破墨 while the social media pitched against what is Chinese Privilege in Singapore. Scrawling 'Barong Singa Laut' (Merlion dance in Bahasa Melayu) like a talisman over the ink splash. conjuring an oracle of fish scales and a lion's head....This coincide with a time of separation from Yogyakarta. Involuntarily Singapore, working with children whose helplessness opens up old wounds and grief. Making this intuitive-chance-literati splashes seems to pacify. Perhaps I am also raging against the years of Western academy art training. Or is it simply the sense of disenfranchised in Singapore, reflecting over the BiCentennial in 2019?