✶info
syakiraken@gmail.com
UNIT 1 SRS
colored pencil & natural dye on calico fabric
approx. 160x70 cm
I talk about trauma and distress through the exploration of how the medium of calico can hold fleeting memories. Calico's common use in the preparatory stage within fashion, intersects with how drawing is often conceived as a drafting media for a bigger work.
The drawings take inspiration from my daily commutes and integrate other images of visual intimacy represented through separated fragments. I illustrate commutes as a transitionary, brief, almost passive daily event that comes and goes. By using colored pencil that will fade through time on calico, my work mirrors how the meaning of trauma can shift and contort over time.
PROCESS
I started off with the exploration of intimate visuals, which led to re-drawing the
Wilson rd. stairs
When drawing on calicos, I notice how the fabric is easy to crease. Even if I iron it, the creases tend to stay. To me, this could represent the relationship between memories and trauma. Memories shift over time, yet it will slowly fade away if not held through an attachment. Although the memory, it’s details, and what led up to it may blur, the emotion we feel towards it will often stay.
I use pencil colors because of it’s ability to blur when the graphite is in contact with the calico surface. It gives off a dreamy, surreal, and washed-out look, like a fleeting memory. With time, the pencil will slowly disappear from the calico surface. The decision on not giving a fixative is because (1) it will make the fabric stiff (2) i want it to mimic how memories of trauma will fade.
The thinner the calico, the easier the drawing will fade. I try not to limit myself on what type of ‘memories’ i would draw on the different weights of calicos as I want to get used to using the different weights and the textural feel first.
I had a lot of conversations with Sarah on what visuals would be best to represent ‘memories’. At first I tried to narrow my visual expectations down, but as the artwork developed, constricting my visual expectatiosns prohibited me from drawing. It became better to just let it flow. Rather than drawing traumatic memories, I drew some abstract objects, as well as intimate and things I see everyday.
I started to lean and take inspiration from my daily commute. Drawing the view from the bus, walking in the subway, inside the tube. Things
that are often overlooked because commute is thought of as a ‘transitionary’ process from point A to point B. I found a beautiful metaphor in this daily activity that everyone participates in, about memories that fades. Traumas will pass and memories will go much like the commutes that we take. Drawn as fragments, mimicking the way we recollect memories. :]
I dyed on the fabrics that I didn’t draw on which allowed me to explore on composition. I dyed the fabric using tea like how I did on my previous work (Duvet, 2024). Through this process I learned that using different teas will result to different opacity and color.
I arranged the fragments of calico overlapping it with one another. My initial idea on the composition provoked me to take more interest on how the light from the window/wherever it’s displayed could change the way the artwork is seen.
During the day, the layers of calico are more visible, showing more of the composition. As the day goes on, the drawings instead take more prominence than the medium. The lighting conditions of which the artwork is given from its surroundings changes how the artwork is perceived. External context such as time of day when seeing the work plays a crucial role in perceiving the work itself. The viewer is not at all disadavantaged when they see the work at a certain time of day. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to perceive the artwork, just different conditions. I believe this reflects the myriad of reflections people can have when recalling upon their memories.
seperate parts
I stitched them in 3 different parts so when I display them it will be able to show the different layers more.
This would also be the first time I try displaying an installation work that responds to the space where as previously I have only specifically worked with only 2D artworks. I learned a lot about space and surroundings when installing, and alternative ways to display work.
using magnets to attach the layers together Hanging up using fishing wire
We hung up the work with fishing wire. Not thinking further about the logistics of installing, Turns out the window sill was too small to hang the 3 layers separately. Instead of sewing the 3 separate layers together (for good), Pete suggested to stick them together using small magnets. It was my first time using magnets to display works and i found it very interesting.
We hung up the work with fishing wire. Not thinking further about the logistics of installing, Turns out the window sill was too small to hang the 3 layers separately. Instead of sewing the 3 separate layers together (for good), Pete suggested to stick them together using small magnets. It was my first time using magnets to display works and i found it very interesting.
colored pencil & natural dye on calico fabric
approx. 160x70 cm
Friends who have seen the work as it was being developed said they liked when I used Blues in my works more than when I was drawing using a more Sepia/Brown tones. As the work developed, when it was stitched together as one full composition the fragments of Blues and the Browns was recieved very well. Other comments pointed out how I combined intimate and non-intimate works, with displaying it specifically on a window so that we get to see it differently every time.
I learned alot from my first display. There are a lot of technical considerations to be made when displaying an installation work. When I made the artwork, I was hyperfocused on the concept, my timeline in finishing it, and where to install it, but I overlooked the logistics of its actual installation. I was not satisfied by the use of magnets as it created weight on the fabric that pulled the it down. This display method also wasn’t able to showcase the different layers as well as I expected it to. I was also unsatisfied on how I secured the fishing wire on the artwork as it was my first time working with it. The fishing wire on hanging the work seemed messy and distracting.
Even so, I was satisfied with when documenting the work on different times of the day. I was able to see how it can be perceived differently, subjectively.
I had the opportunity to show ‘Kemarin dan Hari-hari Sebelumnya...’ in a groupshow at LumiNoir ART gallery @ KOPPEL Project. It’s a very fun opportunity as I am able to show my artwork in a different context, possibly resulting to a different way of perceiving by a broader audience.
For this show, I wanted to display my work how I originally intended it to be. I tried to make an installation guide to help visualize how it would look like (as I didn’t achieve it the first time). During installation, Jonathan gave suggestions to use wooden dowels to hang the fabric, securing them with magnets and a lose hand stitch.
wooden dowels
K
colored pencil & natural dye on calico fabric
approx. 160x70 cm
The installation worked as how I wanted originally. It was able to show the 3 different layers because I installed it with a gap between each layers.
I had interesting comments from strangers, friends, artists, and people who don’t have an art background. Most of them were interested in the technicality of the work, how I was able to show blurriness through pencil colors. They thought the metaphors I used to convey distress and memory were romantic.
It was also shocking when I had one of my friend cry (?!) when I was explaining to her about my work, as I never gotten that reaction before for my work. She said that talks about memories, distress, and repression makes her think a lot about the memories of her siblings.
A stranger came and commented that my type of work would not work if it were installed in a whitecube gallery, because it would limit how I am able to interact with the space.
Of all the fragments I drew, the drawing of a blurry tree was the one that gained most attention. People commented how it was the only drawing in the artwork that had blurry, hatch lines, oppose to the other drawings where I draw clean edges for my shapes. They suggested I try play more with size and to explore more on the blurry hatches more.
Something interesting is that because the window in the gallery is frosted, it wasn’t able to show the layers of the work well during the day. Instead, it only gives the thin calico fabrics a hint of blue from the sky. I don’t see this as a disadvantage in displaying my work, it’s a way of perceiving the work in a different context in that space.