Experience Human Wisdom as Art

For over a decade now, we at Project FUEL have been collecting life lessons of people from variegated walks of life. Over the years, as we have interacted with over thousands of people spanning geographies, we have come to understand that if given the opportunity, everyone has something of value to offer to the world from their experience.

It was only when the world unified in the wake of the COVID-19 that we realized how imperative and urgent the need was to investigate this quest further. We wanted to feel more hopeful ourselves despite the odds of the rising toll of those infected or running the risk being flashed in the news and spoken at every dinner table. We wanted to share a resource with the world that was both rooted in reality yet crafted with intention and imagination.

As a result of our reflections, the World Wisdom Map was born. A unique breathing repository of life lessons from 195 countries of the world. 

In partnership with Singapore International Foundation, the map launched on 25th December 2020 as a Christmas and New Year’s present to the world. Curating the wisdom of the world is no menial task. It required our constant commitment, enthusiasm and utmost attention. 

Apart from the life lessons, we took the difficulty bar a notch higher and decided to bring more depth to the exercise, by designing 30 life lessons from different countries into original artworks. 

10 South-East Asian artists joined hands and gave an artistic twist to each story that resonated with them in this remarkable exhibition.

Scroll down to explore 10 highlighted artworks from the World Wisdom Map.

The Taiwan based artist shared that the concept behind the piece was, "When we keep walking in this world, we hold what we had, draw the maps where we have been, and keep on walking." 

"I like the idea that he built up his life above the mistakes he has made, that I decided to show those concepts with the images of maps."

The concept behind this poignant artwork, Evelyn says, was to use symbols that have that literal and metaphorical value, “I used shadow and orientation as the key elements. Here, Sudhanshu is with his friend, regretting what if it were... and probably wished if he could turn back the time."

"So I took 'turn back', 'time', 'regret' and the origin of the country, 'Indonesia' as the keywords. When the reality is turned upside down below, the regret with wish and sadness is the focal point."

"Using Batik Slobog as a symbol of sadness... while inside the batik pattern, there is time, which, sadly, is gone in reality."

Giving a context to his art Francis writes: “As what Elim has shared, 'When you see things with your heart, and you do things with your heart, you put everything into it, versus just doing things for the sake of it'.” 

"This visual rendering of Elim Chew features two contrasting elements – the linear urban landscape and seemingly organic cardiac forms. I am trying to visualize that while it is difficult to marry passion and financial stability, it is actually possible."

"This piece of thought speaks volumes of how others are fortunate enough to be working on things they love to do, while others aren’t as fortunate, perhaps by circumstance or other life factors."

"Like that of those organic shapes becoming the foundation of those structures (which represent work), we are able to say that passion at our work can reawaken and realign us to what is meaningful for us."

Taking a cue from this life lesson of Jillian Mari Harris, Harshad shares, "My idea was to show a woman, as well as other creatures unravelling through the form of an oak tree."

"It looks like she’s pushing away a tapestry-like facade that is the oak tree, to reveal something that’s actually true, a more complex picture."

"On the first impression, one may see a tree, but as one looks closely, the different details and complexities become visible."

Expressing her journey Janhavi adds, “My heart was so full when I read about her journey through her illness, the judgements and hardships she’s had to endure. I wanted to focus, though, on where she is now, her gratitude and acknowledgement of the hands that helped her, her unique story and growth."

"How she sees herself is the story that attracted me, and that’s what I tried to recreate."

"I think all women have in some quantity or the other, are made to grapple with this constantly shifting shapes of people’s perception, for whatever they might do, for who they are. And nothing is more empowering than soaring beyond, and being authentic to self."

Chin explains, "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."

"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 illustration has over a photograph, that photographs 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."

She writes, "All of us are aware of how overwhelming challenges can be, either academic or in personal life. The dad from the story was creative to use the analogy of how to eat an elephant, that imagery struck my mind."

"I visualised it as how overwhelming it would be if a person is requested to finish a heap of food."

"Yet the only sensible thing to be done is one bite at a time. There's no other way around it, isn't it?" 

Borrowing inspiration from the story, Nori shares, "The artwork represents different people and their perspective of suffering."

"The stem interconnecting each hand represents suffering and turmoil, while the pale white moon represents positivity."

"It's in the hands of the observer to focus on what to look at and how they would want to interpret it."

Throwing a light at her process of interpreting this layered life lesson, Sarah explains, "It is important to me as an artist, to delve into the mindset of the author to interpret their letters. Where are they coming from, how are they feeling, what is the mood of the text?"

"Are they narrating a tale set in the daytime or at night? Are they observing a scene from a distance, or are staged in it?"

"Perhaps most of the time the story always makes the author see things from a distance, a zoomed out version of their life even though they may be in the middle of it all."

"All these aspects help me to define the color palette of the visual, the multiple elements that become a part of the whole."

Adopting Hussain’s sentiment, Tanya’s illustration symbolizes the elements of self-reflection and healing. She writes, "While creating this illustration the artist was deeply inspired by a beautiful quote by Rumi that reads, 'The wound is the place where the light enters you'.

"The insight for this illustration technique is derived from the vintage whimsical tarot card illustrations that tend to grant its onlooker the freedom to make their own perception of what it might mean."

"Going deeper than just what it reads, resonating with it and a tender belief to have probably lived it."