"Wax your arms lah"
(in progress) silicone, human hair
We've been bombarded by unrealistic beauty ideals in the media that support the notion that women are required to be hairless, almost as if we women evolved in such a way that our skin is now smooth, scarless, devoid of lumps and bumps, and god forbid... HAIR!!
I am attempting to challenge these unrealistic notions with these realistic wearable silicone sculptures of women's body parts that exaggerate this, thought of as, "disgusting" and frowned upon natural feature that comes with a woman's body. I will be experimenting with embroidery, using hair as thread on the sculptures. With these wearables, instead of removing hair, you will be putting it on, going against society's expectations and preconceptions of what a woman's body is supposed to look like.
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Dedicated to the person who told me to "wax your arms lah".
iSkin
chicken skin, human hair, plastic
I created iPhone covers resembling human skin out of chicken skin and human hair to reflect the inseparable relationship we have with technology and how we are all basically just flesh, metal, hair and plastic fused together playing on the idea that the more reliant we become on technology we move further and further away from being human, morphing into these hybrids of human and technology. . This artwork is a literal take on how our phones have almost become a part of us and how reliant we have become on them. The ephemeral organic sculptures will decay over time mirroring how we will eventually weather away while our creations outlive us.
Matress
performance art
30-minute performance art piece for ONO touching on my own personal experience with mental health.
Anxiety
performance art
A 1-minute performance piece involving me holding scissors to my eye, almost touching it, to invoke the feeling of anxiety in the audience. The performance piece served as a way to give my battle with chronic anxiety form.
Tremble Tremble
performance lecture led by Zarina Muhammad
Taking place in the Institute for Contemporary Arts in Singapore, I was lucky enough to be a part of the performance lecture led by Zarina Muhammad that served as a response to Jesse Jones' "Tremble Tremble".
In 'Tremble Tremble', Irish artist Jesse Jones transforms the ICA Singapore’s largest gallery into a multimedia installation which reimagines feminist history and institutions of law. The exhibition title is inspired by the 1970s Italian ‘Wages for Housework’ campaign, during which women chanted 'Tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate! (Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!)'. In 'Tremble Tremble', Jones introduces the witch as a feminist archetype and disrupter who has the potential to transform reality.
Strip
performance art
A 30-minute performance piece which involves me waxing my body then taping the hair-filled wax strips back on using clear tape. This durational performance piece was a way to respond to my cognitive dissonance pertaining to hair removal. It shows my battle between belief and action, where I have a desire to keep up with society's expectations of how a woman should be hairless although it contradicts my belief in the matter. The violent action of taping and putting it back on acts as a form of apology and regret for having this desire to please by having to reject parts of myself, those parts being my own hair as well as my beliefs.