20 Jan Artwork: Tides of the Soul

The women lying down in the scene addresses the camera directly, ‘breaking the fourth wall’, affecting the fictional divide between the viewer and what is being portrayed. In a sense prodding the audience towards a more personal account. And because the scene is somewhat unconventional (a person lying down in a restaurant), it prompts the viewer to investigate, much like how a detective would estimate the details of a crime scene. And so, the interpretation begins.

The light is the dominant thread that stitches the scene together. An allusion to time/space and the speed of light. 

Salt & pepper, the spice of life; black and white, my consideration of Taoist thought. I would also like to add that the two drinking glasses have different water levels, a double entendre symbolizing the cycling tides and the philosophical sides of optimist and pessimist perspectives (half full or half empty).

Continuing with the idea of water, the shape of the model’s hip is contrasted with the flat table, a sine wave, rise and fall. And so the table, like a raft upon a moonlit shore, or perhaps leaving to cross a body of water at sunrise, here we have arrival or departure and tides again.

The tides also convey cosmic connections, which heightens the comparison to earthy matters, which are the surface of all things (Taoist again).