Yam Chew Oh

The cradle is based on the Chinese saying saying “白发人送黑发人”, which translates as “The white-haired person sending the black-haired person off.” The phrase encapsulates the nightmare of seeing one’s child die before oneself. At the center of the sculpture, numerous short crooked pieces of wire, which were used to secure the marquee at my sister-in-law's wake, pierce through a 24-inch black rubber tubing I picked up near her childhood home. The ends of the prickly strip are knotted to form the shape of a teardrop. Looking also like a noose, it hangs precariously from the top edges of a triangular cardboard structure that was once protective packaging. The pyramidal bricolage sits on a broad U-shape trough that resembles a baby’s cot, or cradle. The word also refers to the act of holding gently and protectively. I was grieving and thinking a lot about pain and loss, as well as the trinity of the father, mother, and child.

The time bender is about having regrets about the dead and the living often wishing they could turn back time, when death occurs. What if we have the power to do that? The time bender, made primarily of transparent fruit packaging, is my fantasy time machine. It holds an Instax Mini photograph of my eye - taken a year before my sister-in-law died - looking out from within. Raffia strings in primary colors penetrate the 7 1/2-inch square contraption, as if they might refract time and take me back to when I could change history.

The karung guni man (rag-and-bone), which looks like the letter P with a square head, is a portrait of my late father. Dad was the patriarch and breadwinner of a family of nine. But, after he had his first stroke, he couldn’t be that anymore. The sculpture’s anthropomorphic head was formerly a 7 x 7-inch square delivery box for a vase of flowers, which I turned upside down. Two of its four flaps, originally held together by staples to protect the vase, have been left loose as a reminder of how Dad lost muscle control of one side of his face and body after his stroke. I wanted to show how Dad, as the head of the family, was stoic in the face of illness. But, my materials didn’t let me. They seemed to know that Dad had given up on living after his first stroke. So, the sculptural head warps against the length of aluminum trying to prop it up. I used light to cast shadows on one side of the work to emphasize the impact of the three strokes on Dad. I also wanted to capture Dad’s essence beyond his illness. I remember as a child admiring and wanting hair like his. I loved how he always finished combing it with a downward motion to create a wave-like fringe. Mom really didn’t like the green pomade he used because it smelled and stained his pillow.

Floating on detritus (2018) is a used light green plastic bag pulled from its closed end through the half-inch opening of a cylindrical power tool socket one inch in height. Hung from transparent fishing line, about two-thirds of the delicate material bunch together under the weight of the metal hardware and gravity to form a top body akin to a folded umbrella. The bottom part of the soft sculpture unfurls like a flower. Its translucent “petals” often catches the slightest whiff of air to set off an inverted pirouette. This eponymous piece epitomizes the spirit of what I do - to see beauty and potential in the most humble of things.

You’ve also been naughty lately! is a sculpture-installation about my late-father as a disciplinarian. It is part of a group of found material sculptures capturing personal stories, life-changing moments, and memories that I am afraid to lose. My late-father brought us up on civility. But, he often demanded unquestioning obedience. He was strict, always ready to use the cane on us (corporal punishment was normal then). Even if you were not the one being caned, there was no escaping his rage. Dad would finish caning one of his children, then turn to the others looking on nearby and say, “You’ve also been naughty lately!” before proceeding to cane everyone. If one tried to run, he would give chase. In You’ve also been naughty lately! (2018), Dad appears as a brawny upright wooden trapezoid approximately 15 7/8 inches tall and 12 6/8 inches wide. The hefty block leans forward and pulls over its top curved edge a one-meter LED light strip straining to disengage from a nearby electrical outlet. I wanted to leverage the tilt of the found wooden block to show Dad bearing down on us. In this installation, he “discharges” his anger through the light strip that ends in a lasso, reprimanding and uncontainable. A circular disc representing one of his children cowers nearby in fear, head bowed and resigned.

Travel became a true luxury during the COVID-19 pandemic. This piece was made using mostly airline-issued face shields that I wore for more than 30 hours each way when I traveled home to Singapore in July 2020. I was fortunate I got to spend time with my family, especially my newborn niece and nephew, and attend my brother’s wedding in the middle of the pandemic.