This collection of work centres around a powerful childhood memory. At around four years of age, I was playing on the balcony of a restaurant that my mum worked at. Playing happily, I suddenly slipped between a gap in the timber floor and fell into the river below. Falling from such height, I sank deep into the water. I have strong memories of sinking deeper and deeper and the water getting darker and darker, and stiller and stiller, until I hit the muddy bottom. I then remember a huge splash and seeing sparks of light spread through the water and something pulling me up by my hair. Hearing the boom of me hitting the water from the restaurant kitchen, my mum had run through the restaurant and dived off the balcony after. While elements of this memory are traumatic, I have always focused on the positive. The heroic action of my mum and the sense of being pulled from the depth. Therefore, hope, healing and new beginnings are a recurring theme in all six paintings.
Exploring this memory across these six paintings, I have expressed different elements of the memory in each painting and weaved in some Buddhist stories, ceremonies and concepts. The main idea being the four levels of the lotus used in Buddhist teachings as a symbol of the path to enlightenment. As the lotus sprouts in the mud and spends most of its life underwater before finally blooming on the surface, it is believed to symbolise the struggles we all go through in life and in the pursuit of enlightenment. Lotuses can be seen in all six paintings to represent this transformation and growth.
In this collection there are also a number of representations of me. The innocent childlike face with hair in buns, the rat, the falling figure and the monkey, each represent a different element of my life, spiritual journey and personality. I feel like there is lots more to process about this memory, which is what I called this show, Deep Water Part One.
Image: Fear 2023, acrylic on linen, 140 x 183 cm
