'Tranquil Travail' (H40 x W245 cm x D5cm) is a woven cut-canvas painted with enamel paint. This work was produced in collaboration with the Tsao Foundation, in an exhibition initiative (In An Echo We Remember, 2017) where students from SOTA engaged with selected residents of Whampoa housing estate to create artwork in response to various sentimental objects within the residents' household.

 

The work takes inspiration from the technicolour pattern of a pair of rattan stools owned by an elderly Indian couple, claiming that its origins were from the hand-made production of Changi prisoners as part of their rehabilitation in the early days.

 

Through the laborious recreation of its motif, it combines the patterns of the two stools into a single monumentalised colour sequence. It replicates the stools' method of construction and sequential colour arrangement, bringing out the visual design quality of an object that was created for a functional purpose, through the meditative act of weaving.

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The work commemorates the tranquil memories of the couple who used the objects for their personal household chores and the domestic labour from raising their children, in juxtaposition with the rehabilitative labour of the Changi prisoners who made and built the handicraft.

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This work had also been featured in a Zao Bao article on 5th July 2017 titled “SOTA Visual Arts Cohort Graduation Show”.