This piece explores the restlessness of the mind “nourished” by exterior voices/ societal opinions and one’s consequential need for “empty-headedness”. The process of carving away the rubber block reflects the disintegration of sanity resulted from a mind overflown by persistent thoughts and hypersensitivity to one’s surroundings. Being plagued by a (durian) tree of burdening thoughts and constant replays of the past (the growth arch of the tree itself), the figure’s head is physically attached to the spiky fruit and therefore to all the veins and neurons in the tree—in which they act as messengers to keep the unwanted thoughts flowing in.
Here is a simile. Overthinking is as painful as having durian spikes in my skull.
Medium: Block print on artisan paper, rendered with oil pastels
Size: 18 x 11.5 inches
Year: 2024