This artwork was an experiment for me to learnt alternative techniques. I know batik is traditionally done on fabric, but I am limited to watercolour and paper.
Here is the story that accompanied this piece as a caption on Instagram:
Last year, a senior lady visited me because she wanted to know my background and motivations better. I was touched because most people had pre-conceived judgements about my work and education, which stopped many conversations.
After having a chat with the senior lady, I experimented with grey and pink kinda batik. Instead of wax, cloth and ink, I used masking fluid as wax, watercolour paper as cloth and watercolour paints.
Doing this batik brings me back in the primary school days, my teachers would ask us to use candle as a substitute of wax. However, I dislike using candle because it is not smooth, and not like I can question the teachers about it. Since I have a chance to experiment batik when I am older, then why not?
However, I lost v1 due to a move and I struggle to redo it mentally for almost a year. It was only few weeks ago, I told myself just to start v2 from scratch. Also, I was very motivated by the kind curiosity of the senior lady, which help me to finally complete v2.
Year
- 2024
Medium
- Watercolour
Dimensions
02. Approach
As the result of the conversation I had with the senior lady, I felt led to paint batik using water colour and paper. While batik is a cultural heritage of Malaysia, I hardly explored it because I could not seem to recreate it on paper. As per story I wrote in the background section, I did not like to use candle wax as it was streaky and it was something that bothered me in primary school.
Now as an adult, I get to use masking fluid to mask out the white lines, which is similar to the lines found on textile batik.
As for the colours grey and pink, I chose these colours for two reasons. Firstly, the colours grey and pink are bold and contrasting. Secondly, I bought those colours during a sale, and I wanted to utilised them to the best of my abilities.
03. Process
Since this is an experiment piece, I really did go with the flow. Basically, this is what I have done:
- Drew the pattern.
- Identify where to put the colours.
- Added masking fluid with a fine-liner brush for accuracy.
- Painted the piece.
- Remove the dried masking fluid which reveals the white lines.
- Touch up the the white lines to look cleaner.
04. Challenges
The challenge of this artwork was to lose v1, which means I had to recreate this piece. However, this came out as a blessing in disguise as I could improve on it. The other challenge was more of an emotional challenge, in which I have to process my deep emotions through this artwork. Sometimes, these emotions comes in the way of creating art but as I stop thinking and start doing, I slowly felt better. While confronting difficult emotions is hard but art helped me to go into the zone that help me feel better. Perhaps we can call this art therapy.
05. Final Thoughts
I wish I could conclude with something more comprehensible for this work. I always giving rationale and background in my writings but what if a piece is purely emotional? Despite being an experiment piece, this artwork was exhibited once in Kecik-kecik exhibition 2025. It does baffles me because I went with the flow instead of putting proper planning.
Perhaps, one thing I could take back from this piece is not everything needs to be explained.