This series is my return to oil painting after a five-year hiatus. During these five years, I worked in different materials and the choice of materials itself have become a very important aspect of my work. But during these five years I was also parched and thirsty for oil.

Oil paint began to be used in art in 15th century Europe, a time when institutionalized religion was loosening its grip and science began to flourish. It was a time where logic and magic co-existed together, a time of proto-science and alchemy. Oil paint is a byproduct of alchemy. It comprised of pigments from the earth and the metals and oil from plants. Now oil is being substituted by acrylic, a byproduct of the petro-chemical industry. We live in a world without magic, we live in a world where dinosaur juice are pumped into our cars so that we can go to the office.

To my surprise, the image of water began to emerge in my oil painting. At first, the water acts only as backgrounds but gradually becoming more prominent as the series progresses. The human is about 70% water, the tropics is dense with humidity. Malaysia’s average relative humidity is 70% to 90%, immigrant ancestors all arrived by water. Water vapors in the air gets into everything, gives life, refreshes, suffocates, grow moldy, dissolves, disappears, forgotten, rearranged, live again, fresh, stagnant, dead, revived again, layers and layers of history and stories.

Oil and water does not mix, oil floats above water. Therefore for me, painting in oil is like allowing the unconscious to float onto the surface. When I paint my brain remembers the times, the dates, the names, the events, the reasons and the purposes but my fingers remember the touches, textures, tastes, smells, sounds and emotions. Painting is a way for me to re-experience back sensations, and in this series in particular, of growing up in a humid country full of life and evergreen but at the same time full of forgetfulness and failure in sustaining what we have built…

….and lastly, perhaps I’m painting for hope like a frog croaking for the rain. Hoping for a heavy rainfall that will wash all the stink away, and start afresh again.