WEEK 3.....#2 (DESIGNER STATEMENT)
BOX OF INSTALLATION OF LIGHTS
The story- No Dram of Mercy, is a story reflecting how people suffer during the invasion of Japan. This did not just happen in Malaysia, lots of people all over the world were the victim of this tragic event. But people still fight back. They might die because of this, they might cause the death of their closest one. But they put the safety of nation before their own because they believe they were part of something bigger. This story happens in Papan, and Sybil Kathigasu is the representative of all this people. Some might think she is not a good wife, a good mother, a good daughter, but she is definitely a heroine.
Throughout the whole story, Sybil turns from a freeman to captive of Japan’s soldier and back to freeman again. She had lived a life most people wouldn’t even dare to imagine. She been tortured by the Japanese, watch her husband been tortured and her daughter almost die in front of her and she couldn’t do anything but to pray. She held firmly on her faith, her belief. Maybe for her, losing faith is worse than death itself. There might be some struggle when she suffers all this, she is just a normal person with great compassion, if not, she wouldn’t do all this for people that is not blood related to her. This transformation of Sybil’s life is translated into the installation.
This installation focus on the box playing with lights. Different kind of lighting gave people different kind of feeling. With very limited light sources, human easily get depressed. Just as what Sybil would feel when she was in the prison. Inside the box, one of the faces have mirror with photo of Sybil. When people first put their head inside the box, it will be total darkness. Slowly, there will be more and more light come in. When there is sufficient light, the box can be turn and show the mirror with photo of Sybil Kathigasu. So, the reflection of the user will overlap with Sybil image. This will make the user to have an illusion he or she is Sybil or he or she was trapped with Sybil. And with more and more light, it show that hope is coming. This also gave a sense of trap, since Sybil was trapped her whole life, she trap herself inside her faith, she trap by her duty, she trap by the Japanese and lastly trap by her death. She was always inside a cage unintentionally create by herself or the people surround her.
The steel rod that support the box is cover with steel wire, brown color thread and white color thread which some part of it will be cover by red color. Steel wire indicate the strength Sybil possessed. The brown color thread indicate the softness of Sybil as it is the same color as woods. The white color thread cover with red color show the blood spill by Sybil when she was tortured. Basically the whole installation represent Sybil and what she had been through after the war start, and show Sybil's indomitable will and determination.
