Artwork inspired by Nurizzatul Izzah Hj Abd Rahman's story

Inspired by the life lesson of Nurizzatul Izzah Hj Abd Rahman from Brunei Darussalam, "If you are at the lowest point of the ocean. You can stay there at the bottom until you drown or you gather pearls and rise again."

The artist Kenneth Chin shares about the work, "Brunei is a Muslim Southeast Asian country so I decided to paint a traditionally dressed lady to show our world cultural diversity. The story the author wrote seems tough on her that she had a huge responsibility on her shoulders and I didn’t want to make my illustration too depressing because it should be left with a positive note. I decided to take what she wrote for her life lesson literally. Instead of coming up with a new idea, I focussed on the advantage of illustration has over photograph that photograph can’t recreate. I painted her rising towards the ocean’s surface with the pearls that are supposed to be pulling her down in reality. I created a dynamic perspective of looking from down upwards, of her towards the ocean’s surface. Different postures and poses of the character were explored before this was chosen. I painted lines of movement around her to create the spontaneity and her drive towards success."

Kenneth is a 24-year-old Deaf but speaking self-taught artist based in Singapore.

Kenneth has immense love for wildlife. He has been drawing animals since he was 3 years old. He wants to share his love for the less-loved animals so people will learn to appreciate more, in order to protect the nature around us.

Before COVID, he was a fervent traveller, visiting many countries to experience different people and culture. He has many international friends now and some he has met in real life. He enjoys exchanging with them to gain a larger and global outlook towards life and everything under the sun!

His other interests include extreme sports (adrenaline junkie, at that!), aquascaping, wildlife photography (sometimes uses his own photo references for art) and travelling around the world to learn about the culture and making friends from all over the world.

World Wisdom Map is a unique project that documents the life lesson and story of people from each of the 195 countries in the world. The collation and exhibition of human wisdom is presented on a digital, artistic and interactive world map. The data has also been designed into education and art resources. This consciousness project combines visual, and wisdom anthropology that exists in the world and further sparks awareness about the diversity of lifestyles, as well as the coping mechanism that people employ to create a meaningful life. Using the tool of technology, it is easier to connect and exchange information to ignite hope and global participation in an unbiased and creative way.

World Wisdom Map is conceptualised by Project FUEL, in association with Singapore International Foundation.