Drifting Ahead | Otherworld series | Pigment markers on watercolour paper | Nov 2014 - Feb 2015
I was driving along the scenic coastal road in Batu Ferringhi and spied someone fishing while crouched on a huge boulder in the sea. In my mind's eye the boulder was transformed into a cosmic giant's head, recently decapitated, and the person is camped out on this head with a few odds and ends as well as several cats. Cats are the navigators of dreams in my drawings, on account of them sleeping so much! They act as a guide that brings us as the observer into antoher world while also creating a safe space for us in an unfamiliar place.
So the story of this piece is: the human and giant had a great fight. Somehow the giant was decapitated. I did not think of a means by which the tiny human did the feat, but the scene is focused on the aftermath of the battle. Both parties are stuck as the giant is without its body and the human could not hope to swim in the populated waters below. So they get by as best as they can for the moment, with the human feeding the giant with anthropomorphic swimming creatures which he hooks with bait from the gaint's flesh.
They drfit through an ocean filled with sunken buildings and upside-down sailboats. Sea creatures go about their business in the dark waters. Most of them have begun to evolve hands and limbs in lieu of fins, perhaps one day they will claim the crystal-studded shore as their own! All the while the entire scene is watched by a giant, faceted eye. Or is that a subterranean sun?
