“What was once a beautiful galaxy has become a minefield of massive black holes, entangled by the one who created us. We ended up being vulnerable; the universe, the stars and all of its might, playing a role of how we want to see beyond this world. To justify how we felt like you were a wonder, more than the moon, stars and the sun combined.” 1/6 Series
2019
We are mostly inspired by the wilderness where inspiration usually strikes. Wallace Stevens once said, “Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.” The process entails experience by “walking around the lake”; brainstorming, sketching, bringing back what we experience in order to create the final artwork. 2/6 Series
2019
“I suppose the connection between humans and nature is something we find ourselves returning to a lot in our current series of works; there is a sense of almost isolation, of feeling terribly small against a vast space surrounding us. Trying to put that feelings into an image is something that we will always be obsessed about.” 3/6 Series
2019
“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” This is our sacred place. 4/6 Series
2019
“I once dreamt of a life where all was how I imagined it to be.” 5/6 Series
2019
“The future is the present with the lights on.” 6/6 Series
2019
“I once dreamt of a life where all was how I imagined it to be.”
2019
“I once dreamt of a life where all was how I imagined it to be.”
2019
“I once dreamt of a life where all was how I imagined it to be.”
2019
“I once dreamt of a life where all was how I imagined it to be.”
2019
Creative Direction: Mike Herabot & Julie Chua
Design: Mike Herabot & Julie Chua
2019
2019
Photography: Chrispian Chan
Design: Mike Herabot
Art Adaptation: Liyana Norman
“You might not make it to the top, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being rich or famous.”
2019
“Wave & Destroy.”
2019
Tote Bag
Coffee powder is my everyday interaction from perking up my mornings to making a cup for a coffee lover. From the extraction of espresso to the exploration of latte art. Thrown away coffee powder - the everyday disposal from the calibration of the coffee grinder - became my way of creating a latte art.
In every-art making process, its complexity in finishing is restricted by my expectation in creating a perfect artwork. By deconstructing the recipe from a perfect cup, the primary material of coffee powder became my medium of art making. In reconstructing the process of coffee making, I can still create my cup of coffee without throwing any coffee powder away.
Having a strong attachment to my paintings and drawings, I struggled to salvage and keep their existence. In choosing coffee powder to create and to erase, I leave a temporary existence of myself that is only keepsake in photograph.
Coffee Powder Series #2 is a continuity of the notion self. From erasing to preserving – keeping what is temporary, into something more permanent. Now, in choosing coffee powder to create and preserve, I leave a temporary existence into something that can last “forever”.
“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.”
Mixed Media on Acrylic
29.7cm x 42.0cm
2018
“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”
Mixed Media on Acrylic
29.7cm x 42.0cm
2018
“I'm strong on the outside, not all the way through. I've never been perfect, but neither have you.”
Mixed Media on Acrylic
29.7cm x 42.0cm
2018
“Home is where our story begins.”
2018
Coffee packaging | Espresso
2018
Coffee Packaging | Filter
2018
Co-roasting coffee project for National’s Day 2018
Co-roasting coffee project for National’s Day 2018
“A home began with a space full of memories.”
2018
“We all have places to stay but everywhere to call home.”
2018
“Let’s love each story as much as the stars love to shine.”
2018
Coffee Packaging | Espresso
2018
Coffee Packaging | Filter
2018
Co-roasting coffee project for Culture & Culture Coffee Festival 2018
“Cross my heart and hope to love.”
2018
Coffee chocolate packaging
2018
Coffee chocolate bar project for Valentine’s Day 2018
“There's a place where everyone can be happy, it's the most beautiful place in the whole world. It's made of candy canes and planes. And bright, red choo choo trains.”
2017
Christmas special packaging | Natural
2017
Christmas special packaging | Washed
2017
Coffee chocolate bar project for Christmas Special 2017
Coffee chocolate bar project for Christmas Special 2017
“Don’t punish the children for the sins of their father.”
2017
"Ikigai”
2017
“The only home we have, are the ones we build within ourselves.”
2017
Coffee Packaging | Espresso
2017
Coffee Packaging | Filter
2017
T-Shirt | Front
2017
T-Shirt | Back
2017
Co-roasting coffee project for Tokyo Coffee Festival 2017
Co-roasting coffee project for Tokyo Coffee Festival 2017
“Three wishes; "We'd be so less fragile, if we're made from metal. And our hearts from iron, and our minds from steel."
2017
"We are programmed to search for our dreams"
2017
Photo-Illustration on T-shirt
2017
“We've come to accept a life in a box because we've been told it's a normal life. No, it's a boring life.”
Pen on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2016
Tote Bag | Portafilter
2016
“My imaginary adventure starts here. Fantasizing into a world that I could call my own.”
Pen on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2016
Tote Bag | Chemex
2016
“We love, we miss, we break, and start again.”, 1/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"The breath of seasons can’t deny its past, it’s still broken into parts. Won’t you believe I’m a damaged work of art.", 2/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"Like cold water, time’s slipping through my catch. But we’ll keep this act up, though I’m lost at sea.", 3/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"We spent all of summer running, from fears we left behind. Though it never rained in open fields, we feared cold all the time.", 4/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
“So we set off with the winds, with our backs leaned against the sun. Heavyhearted kind of sin. Broken cage, now it’s all undone.”, 5/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"So stay with me, unassuming, quietly. When my whole world crumbles within.”, 6/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"Stand by windows, stand by your doors. Cause there’s nothing that gets me anymore.”, 7/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
"One too many living monsters, reside in your head. Lonely creatures suffocate you, reside in your space.", 8/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
“See the world in brilliant pieces, living life alone as one. Back and forth we move in circles.”, 9/9 Series
14.8cm x 21.0cm
Pen on Paper
2016
“Sometimes the words of your father falls through the cracks of your confidence. You're never the best. Your older brother is the role model, and your sister gets away with everything. Someone always leaves you, always saying goodbye. As you drink your coffee, as you fill your worth with substance and alcohol. The nexflix running in the background. You stretch your arms and raise your elbow above your head. The fuck you's running in repeat. You are your own person, your peace is yours alone. The battles you fight are yours, and yours alone. And as your slowly raise your head, the tiny speech bubbles questioning your confidence. You know you will get through this, 2nd be 2nd best!? Fuck you.” - Letter from Anonymous
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2015
“The more real you get the more unreal the world gets.”
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2015
“Each mornings, I’m thankful for heaven’s divine, that my heart with yours and you found me.”
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2015
“Some people come into our lives and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never ever the same.”
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2015
“Beauty is about being yourself and being different is better. Everyone should embrace being different.”
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2016
“What’s the worst thing I've stolen? Probably little pieces of other people’s lives. Where I’ve either wasted their time or hurt them in some way. That’s the worst thing you can steal, the time of other people. You just can’t get that back.”
Graphite Pencil on Paper
21.0cm x 29.7cm
2018
Oscar Wilde once said,
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter”.
Existent,
Non-existent,
Fictional,
Non-fictional
Of portraiture evokes the artist’s soul, captivating the inner creativity of art-making, expanding the imagination to boundless possibilities.
The pointed ends of the lead lean forward to sketch.
The skin of the paper invites it’s clothing.
Gliding across the plains, conquering and stretching the hues of her eyes.
Polishing those beautiful pupils, giving life to her sublime death.
Presenting “I am the Many Faces of the People I Draw” depicts the portraitures of recreational subjects of reality. The iconic figures are carefully selected to mimic photographs of reference, challenging the ‘reality’ that photography captures. The incompletion the individual portraitures act as a metaphor of erasure, the fear of forgetting the existence of a being. Capturing only the significant and most memorable features of the face like the eyes, the gaze or the lips, the voice.
"I shower myself in caffeine and devour coffee powder & beans."
2015
"I want to see the world through a camera lens."
2015
“We have this hope, as an anchor for our souls.”
2015
"My eyes reflect nothing but little fantasies of mine."
2015
"Forgive me today, Father. For I am breaking tomorrow promises."
2015
"You set me free. Three nails and You rescued me."
2015
"We think too much and feel too little."
2015
“May the froth be with you.”
2015
Coffee powder is my everyday interaction from perking up my mornings to making a cup for a coffee lover. From the extraction of espresso to the exploration of latte art.
Thrown away coffee powder - the everyday disposal from the calibration of the coffee grinder - became my way of creating a latte art.
In every art making process, its complexity in finishing is restricted by my expectation in creating a perfect artwork.
By deconstructing the recipe from a perfect cup, the primary material of coffee powder became my medium of art-making. In reconstructing the process of coffee making, I can still create my cup of coffee without throwing any coffee powder away.
Having a strong attachment to my paintings and drawings, I struggled to salvage and keep their existence. In choosing coffee powder to create and to erase, I leave a temporary existence of myself that is only keepsake in photograph.
“The portraiture of myself in kindergarden graduation. To express myself that I am growing up and away from the pain of the past. The young yet matured look showed that my pain is well hidden and suppress my sadness and loneliness in within myself so that I can be confident and independent.” – Middle Child Syndrome
Graphite Pencil on Paper
42.0cm x 29.7cm
2013
Graphite Pencil on Paper
42.0cm x 29.7cm
2013
“Sometimes I think the only memories I have are those that I’ve created around photographs of me as a child. Maybe I’m creating my own life. I distrust any memories I do have. They may be fictions too.” - Sally Mann
As inspired from the above statement, my personal experience from my childhood is entirely dependent upon the limited photographs I have and I am only reminded by the captured still of the moment that has been long forgotten in my present mind. I am a collector of the past, however, the track for the progression of my life is relatively vague, and that resulting into my voyage of uncovering my photographs as a bundle of fiction, also input the sense of erasure of these lies diminishing away.
Referencing from the only existing photographs I am forced to be limited by these memories, it is also to question the reliability of these photographs that display proper and happy moments being captured. With reference of the film 'Memento' and Freud’s 'Screen Memory' in how memories are being manipulated, people make themselves remember what they want to believe, in which having the ability to manipulate and mould a memory that is constructed lies to form a truth.
Using the concept of erasure as the main element in my work, where it dislocates and displaces the presence, displaying the ambience of destruction and deconstruction. My intention for this concept is to evoke inner questioning for my viewers.
