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Man with the long face and red lips
Man with the long face and red lips
2026
167cm by 152cm
acrylic on canvas
This painting began with automatic drawing, without a predetermined subject or story. Through pareidolia, I searched the unpredictable marks for possible human figures, gradually interpreting and developing what I found.
After completing the painting, I continued observing the figures. One caught my attention because of his long face and prominent red lip. Something about his appearance unsettled me, and I eventually recognised a connection to my childhood fear of clowns.
This made me consider how our memories and past experiences can influence what we see and how we interpret it. The figure itself was unfamiliar, yet my reaction came from something familiar.
The painting reflects my process-based practice, where meaning is not decided beforehand but emerges through observation, recognition and interpretation.
Night at the bazaar
2026
167cm by152cm
acrylic on canvas
Night at the Bazaar began differently from some of my other works. I started with a specific childhood memory of visiting the Geylang Ramadan bazaar in Singapore. I knew the setting, but I did not plan the people, expressions or final composition.
I began with automatic drawing, then used pareidolia to discover faces and figures within the marks. The crowd gradually emerged through the process.
This reflects how I remember the bazaar. I do not clearly remember individual people, but I remember the feeling of being surrounded by movement, noise and unfamiliar faces.
As an introvert, crowded spaces make me more aware of the people around me. The painting became less about recreating one exact night and more about returning to the feeling of being inside that crowd.
The work brings together memory, observation and uncertainty. I begin with a remembered situation, but what appears within it is discovered through the painting process.
In the mood for lift
In the mood for lift
2026
167cm by152cm
167cm by152cm
acrylic on canvas
In the Mood for Lift looks at the brief and awkward closeness created inside an elevator. People who have no relationship with one another are temporarily placed within the same confined space, physically close yet psychologically separate. Expressions become small clues from which moods and personalities can be imagined. The painting reflects this short interval of silent observation before the doors open and everyone continues in different directions.
Bus ride
2026
167cm by 152cm
acrylic on canvas
Bus Ride considers the temporary gathering of people travelling along the same route. Although everyone moves together for a period of time, each passenger carries a separate destination, purpose and state of mind. I am interested in this contradiction: being part of a group while remaining absorbed in an individual journey. The painting imagines these unseen differences within an ordinary moment of commuting.
Fighting for the cable
2025
167cm by 152cm
acrylic on canvas
Fighting for the Cable imagines a moment of disaster in which people struggle over access to a charging cable. In a world increasingly dependent on smartphones for communication, payment, information and reaching others, the loss of power can turn an ordinary cable into a lifeline. The work reflects how deeply technology has become tied to our ability to function, particularly when normal systems are disrupted.
The painting also marks a transition between my earlier Echo Form series and Automatic Figuration. It was one of my first works to move away from deliberately constructed overlapping figures and allow automatic drawing and spontaneous marks to influence the forms that emerged.
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