Slowly But Surely

A child who fantasizes about adventures, a pre-teen who wants to be a jack-of-all-trades, and a teenager grappling with her anxieties for the future are among the different stages of my girlhood remembered in the pages of my hand-written diary entries. The artworks in this exhibition dialogues with particular moments of my life, putting side by side an assemblage of paintings and sculptures with excerpts from my diaries. Collectively, they form a pictorial narrative of the story of my life.

My intention is to revisit the memories from my childhood and adolescent years, trying to make sense of the impulse and youthful energies that have shaped the way that I look and respond to the world surrounding me. As my younger self once sought answers from the future, the artworks in the exhibition reach back to that old version of me. Through a series of shadow-box assemblages, my younger self is allowed to speak and to remind my present self to value self-compassion in order to move towards a more joyful and meaningful future. As I grow to become an artist, I found confidence in my art as another way to express and record my life experiences. Through the artworks in this exhibition, I wanted to play around how my art can be a form of response to the gaps and repeating motifs in my diary entries.

‘XOXO,’ is a form of endearment derived from Western texting culture which literally means ‘hugs and kisses’. Here, it is used as a sign-off, an informal farewell written at the end of a message. As a young diarist who has grown to become the artist 'Peony on Fire', the exhibition becomes a literary and visual conversation with the girl of my colorful past with that of my present -- the evolution of my identity, art, and my life.