Silkcreen & stitching.

Cotton & teabags, from my stitching journal.

Documentation of my experiment with natural dyes on tea bags, from my stitching journal.

This semester, I am experimenting with natural dyes in my weaving class. So far, I have tried tea, onion skins, jamaica and eucalyptus. For my silkscreen class, I explore making silkscreen designs on canvas with threads and then handstitched more threads on the surface to make the designs more complex and dynamic.

This piece is a tribute to my dad with an undertone of a historic event in Malaysia. The Chinese texts you see in the background from right to left are the meaning of my names and my brothers’ names. The characters should be read from top to bottom. The figure in the center is our childhood portrait with my eldest brother on the right, me in the center and my second brother to the left.

Meanings of our names:
My eldest brother’s name: Song of Peace. The second & last characters in the first row.
My name: Understanding People. The first character in the second row and the second character in the third row.
My second brother’s name:  Renew . The first & last characters in the fourth row.

Social Background:
My eldest brother was born in July 12, 1969 in Malaysia. During that time, Malaysia was under a state of emergency and curfew due to racial riots that occurred on May 13, 1969. The racial clashes happened between the majority Malay people and the minority Chinese and Indians in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The news reported about 2000 people died due to the conflict, majority of them Chinese. With this social turmoil, my eldest brother was born when the curfew was still in effect. Although my dad and I never talked about the incident or the meaning of our names, I believe that was my dad’s reflection on the social context in Malaysia. We (children) are our parents’ hope/wish. We are the seeds they planted in this earth. We grow up and are still rooted in them…

Click here to read more about the incident.