Thank You For Believing In Me

This work is based on a common signage in Singapore that wards off trespassers from entering prohibited areas which are found on fences around the Singapore-Malaysia border control/customs check.
My first encounter with the signage was during a visit to Fort Canning in 2018. While admiring the neatly labeled nature and impeccably maintained park, I could not refrain my eyes from being enchanted by a red block of colour adorned with precise typography of various scripts. To reinforce the function of the sign, an image of a man in a hat pointing his rifle at an unarmed man with his arms raised as to welcome being pointed at is placed in the middle within a white outlined square.
My intention is to create an alternate version of the signage specifically catered for the art world, a self contained space that is safe and liberating, for artists alike to express their ideas and concerns in a democratic way.
Unlike the original sign, the sentences I have placed are not translations of each other, they are written in different languages and script to identify with certain demographical attitudes.
In Malay, I have posed that the artist should follow demands and not to pretend to be intelligent but to make art only within ones level of expertise; for example in cultural knowledge or technical capabilities. The Mandarin script on the other hand offers an illusion of choice and the demand to be critical in making that decision. In Tamil, an acceptance of a forced reality and to be thankful for recognition as well as to be grateful for what has been given.

Artwork size without frame: 121.7 x 152.7 cm
Artwork size with frame: 125.8 x 155.4 cm