Uncertain Relaxation, 2020

Collaborators: Dipali Gupta, mind therapist Joyce Hue and writer curator Eric Goh

Uncertain Relaxation

Digital audio video, 2020, 19.34 mins, 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920 x 1080 Full HDR

Uncertain relaxation is about accepting perplexities, embracing slowness and experiencing respite in an otherwise flustered universe. It is about seeking a moment of relief from an anxious mind which is constantly terrified of the uncertainties of the present as well as the future.

The hypnotic yet tangible voice of my collaborating hypnotherapist and my rudimentarily recorded clips in this moving image collage generate a feeling of tension – a pull of discomfort and a push of respite that struggles to take up mind space. The visuals hold narratives that act as memory banks. They help me cope with my own life events of displacement, relocation and disassociation as I recalibrate to synchronize with my current environment.

The Covid 19 pandemic plunged the world simultaneously into moments of uncertainty, isolation, entrapment, paralyses and despair. This artwork is an attempt to demonstrate through a personal narrative these universal feelings of anxiety and confusion which are oftentimes met with resistance and a neglect of self-care. It is a window to the inner worlds experienced silently in slowness in a state of solitude.

This video piece is a collaboration between the artist, Dipali Gupta and the renowned hypnotherapist Joyce Hue who has invested years of her practice in studying human behavior to help people achieve their individual potential (https://joycehue.com.my). The work developed post a series of meaningful conversations with curator and writer Eric Goh who runs Mutual Aid where this artwork will be showcased in October 2020.

Process Note:

  • This piece was conceived during the MCO and therefore the low-tech treatment, working only with what was available to me at the time.
  • This is the first time I am trying a collaborative project. The anxieties I was facing during the lockdown responded to the relaxation hypnosis provided by mind therapist joyce hue. I therefore chose the relaxation hypnosis for the artwork.
  • Upon encountering the artwork, the viewer may feel a sense of relaxation because of its slow pace but at the same time one may feel a sense of toil and remorse due to the commonplace visuals. Some visuals also evoke a feeling of escapism, of being elsewhere. It is a visceral work that creates a sensation of tension and relaxation in the body.
  • It is a video that mirrors states of anxiety and states of relaxation and allows them to co-exist in the face of an uncertain reality.
  • The clips were collected as personal memories and the camera was the active eye capturing with its movements, the movements of the subject. I was exploring the idea of movement in both the subject and the gaze.
  • The clips carry memories of the dreadful mangkhut in HK, feelings of displacement and struggle, emotions of love, rejection, loneliness and urbanization.
  • The clips also evoke an urge to travel which has now been curbed due to the pandemic.
  • The blank pauses and film clips depict emotions of loss, brokenness or of the various roles of motherhood, and domesticity. It depicts a hyper digitized world losing its sense of intimacy.
  • It engages the two senses of sight and sound. What you hear and what you see is at odds in itself
  • The underlying themes are feminine to some extent with references to motherhood, domesticity, love and subjugation alongside themes of displacement with an urge to return to the known and the comfortable.
  • Reading material: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/