“Mother”, The Traces and Expressions of Feelings

A portrait of a woman who is wearing a Hijab, staring blankly straightforward. There is neither an emotional expression on the face nor through the eyes. 

On the contrary, the artist chose various techniques and processes such as patchwork, cracked colors, embossed painted writing, all of which are integrated in the details of the work to profoundly tell a story.

The combination of various techniques and processes is the entangling of stories that the artist intended to tell through feelings, feminine emotions, and motherhood in the work.

The artist’s small selection of colors forms an overall mood of the art, showing gloominess and negative feelings.  

Apart from that, the artist was able to meticulously control the overall color gradation and the cracked colors. It is another factor contributing to its uniqueness.

The cracks illustrate wrinkles appearing on human skins as time passes, the roughness from hardships and laborious work, and the age of the mother.

Even though the artist only used white, grey, and black, there are other materials integrated into the painting that can be seen close-up.  Using Batik (Pa-teh) fabric together with colors and unique patterns makes this work stands out.

Besides the integration of other materials, the artist added countless Malay words harmoniously to the picture, depicting the pain, struggles, and exhaustion of the mother who had been raising a child.

In certain cases, local characteristics are neatly used in art to convey messages or showcase a culture, genders, or even religions.