Dinner With Strangers (2021)
Mixed Media
Dinner With Friends (2021)
Acrylic on canvas
Dinner With Myself (2021)
Acrylic on canvas
Artist statement
This series is made for my upcoming exhibition with Artcore, the theme is "Batas" which means boundaries or limitations in Malay. I explored boundaries and limitations through a social context. Such social boundaries can be witnessed through a simple dinner.
Comprising of 3 paintings, the series aims to show the different levels of social cues, boundaries, limitations and behaviors depending on the company you are with when you’re having dinner.
Sometimes when having dinner with strangers, you may feel like an outsider looking in. Manners and formalities are observed more closely, the food tastes dull and bland because of the anxieties of small talks with a stranger or acquaintance. By the end of the dinner, even if you enjoyed their company, you’re relieved from the invisible prison of social boundaries.
Compared to having dinner with friends, you may feel at home, comfortable and at ease. Inhibitions are loosened up but there are still invisible boundaries and obligations towards each other – being considerate towards others, multitasking by updating your friends about your life while eating a meatball, ensuring there’s an appropriate level of comfort when silence lingers in the meal.
Having dinner alone is a boundaries-free zone, with no social obligations, social boundaries or cues – it is almost a hedonistic pleasure. You can eat as mindfully or mindlessly as you want in a safe haven.
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