Us & Them
2023
Oil on wood
29 x 46 inch
Humans being humans.
We are everywhere. The past, present, and future are embedded in nature; our relationships, philosophy, and mannerisms sink into our environment. In essence, we adapt to our spaces, and our surroundings adapt to us.
We are everywhere. The past, present, and future are embedded in nature; our relationships, philosophy, and mannerisms sink into our environment. In essence, we adapt to our spaces, and our surroundings adapt to us.
What defines humanity? When thinking of this question, I always conclude with this
answer: our emotions.
answer: our emotions.
Emotion is what makes us human.
I had often found myself in comfort by feeling strong emotions–love and affection, hate and violence, loneliness and misery–because it validated my identity, regardless of how painful it was to undergo such extremes. As someone who tends to rationalise emotions, I aimed to visualise my examinations in a painting of humans being humans.
As such, my position as an author is to observe the extremes of emotions and behaviours.
In the early stages, I planned to apply this in the perspective by using a linear composition alike a scene in a television show and represented intimacy, anger, and sadness through three groups of figures. For better composition, however, I omitted the design completely and used a close-up of two figures wrestling with a silhouette of two figures kissing in between.
