Artworks 1

Tree & Seeds Series

Manna Rain (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 94 x 63.5 cm (CCH4033)

I wanted to create an image of the infinite outpouring of blessings and wonders - like grain, seed or manna raining from the heavens onto the earth. To suggest peace and serenity as we feed on this Bread of Life and rest in His provision, I used subtle tonal gradations of blues and softly radiating yellow hues.

There are no strong or dramatic contrasts – I strove towards a more subtle and restrained visual effect. Textures and details of individual ‘seeds’ were produced using a ‘relief printmaking’ technique so that the forms of each tiny seed were impressed upon the paper surface.

The Tree in the Seed (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 79 x 56 cm (CCH4029)

Manna Rain 2 (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 101 x 65 cm (CCH4036)

Untitled (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 72 x 51 cm (CCH4023)

Ink On Silk Series

Between (2018)

The Scent Series

This work is part of the artist’s larger interest in elements such as scents, sounds and touch, that are difficult to depict or represent visually. As a visual artist who relies on sight as a dominant sense, Cristene first began to explore the effects of scent on her own perceptions and emotions over a decade ago. A memory of her mother’s expensive perfume – a secret, defiant luxury in the impoverishment and austerity of the post-War period in Singapore – had activated in her a flood of recollections and images from the past. The idea of a persistent fragrance in the shadows of the Japanese Occupation was associated with the complex personality of her mother, whose delicate frame belied a resilient, individual spirit.

This motif of scent continues in 2018 and was submitted in response to the Biennale theme of Rosengarten with its reference to interstitial spaces and to the strange time or hours of “in-between-ness” in the legend of Alpenglow. The Biennale theme also encompassed the history of war in the Dolomites. Cristene’s Between alludes to a wafting scent that in turn suggests a presence that is a quiet force emanating its own scent. The distilled ‘essence of a scent’ does not yield to enveloping shadows but survives and lingers between spaces.

For this piece, Cristene deployed a combination of printmaking and zhihua painting – where mineral pigments were directly applied with fingers and palm rather than with paint brushes. Texture and imprints were created through impressions from handmade matrices. The translucency of the silk fabric and subtle colours suggest the behaviour of scents as they stain and leave traces, adding to the sense of ephemerality and transience.

Chinese ink, mineral pigments, with zhihua & printmaking techniques on silk, 204 x 93 cm (CCH0418)

Exhibited at Biennale Arte Dolomiti

Untitled (2019)

Ink on silk, 88 x 58 cm (CCH3621)

Untitled (2019)

Ink on silk, 88 x 58 cm (CCH3623)

Untitled (2013)

Ink on silk, 60 x 116 cm (CCH0038)

Untitled (2013)

Ink on silk, 56 x 62 cm (CCH0039)

Untitled (2013)

Ink on silk, 57 x 60 cm (CCH0040)

Untitled (2013)

Ink on silk, 61 x 53 cm (CCH0041)

Untitled (2013)

Ink on silk, 88 x 58 cm (CCH0042)

The Sand And The Foam

Inspired by Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran’s poem “The Sand and the Foam”, this series of works depicts the sea as serene and calm through subtle layers of colours.

The Sand And The Foam (2016)

Oil-based mixed media, 113 x 64 cm (CCH4333)

From Sea To Sea (2016)

Oil-based mixed media, 113 x 64 cm (CCH4343)

And Then The Sea (2017)

Oil-based mixed media, 113 x 64 cm (CCH7783)

The Tide Catching Light (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 70 x 50 cm (CCH3822)

Touched by the Sun (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 70 x 50 cm (CCH3815)

As The Wind Moves (2020)

Oil-based mixed media, 70 x 50 cm (CCH3820)

The Comfort Of Reminders

Series of works that explore situations related to Time and Memory

The Comfort Of Reminders (2016)

Oil-based mixed media, 76 x 55 cm (CCH4517)

As time passes, memories and recollection become vague, buried or distorted. There is a practice of people encircling and tying strings on their fingers as reminders to do something or not to forget. My work uses actual twine or string twirled into circles and then used in the relief printmaking technique. These circles suggest constant reminders, their repetition conveying a sense of comfort and reassurance. The layering and folds in my work allude to the burying and layering of memories that emerge or shift amidst these reminders.

Rendezvous (2016)

Oil-based mixed media, 76 x 55 cm (CCH4519)

A rendezvous is often associated with secret romantic meetings. The timing of this kind of meeting and quality of time as one waits for it is charged & saturated with anticipation and excitement. Using the relief printmaking technique, I created bands of different textures to suggest the meeting of two different energies as they encounter the other. Where the rendezvous or meeting occurs, there is an electrifying interface, changing both their momentum and complexion.

Terra Series

The Road to Mandalay (2015)

Oil-based mixed media, 113 x 64 cm (CC0074)

The Road to Mandalay came from Rudyard Kipling, who himself had never actually visited Mandalay. Perhaps the phrase is best understood not as the map of an actual route but as a metaphor for a passage of transition or rites of passage and to the idea that the true traveller is one who never arrives.

I was scheduled for a road trip to Mandalay with a film company shooting a documentary program about my art practice. Then the “Saffron Revolution” happened - thousands of Myanmar monks staged non-violent protests, calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The film location was changed so I never reached Myanmar or Mandalay, but in my imagination it is a land infused with radiance and soufulness, with many rich layers and complex histories.

Deep Autumn, Arnos Grove London (2015)

Oil-based mixed media, 113 x 64 cm (CC0080)

An Evening Deepening In Hyde Park, London (2015)

Oil-based mixed media, 64 x 113 cm (CC0078)

An Autumn Morning, The Glade, London (2015)

Oil-based mixed media, 64 x 113 cm (CC0072)

Terra Rossa and Wine, Coonawarra Australia (2015)

Oil-based mixed media, 64 x 113 cm (CC0073)

25-Hour Series

At the Violet Hour (2009)

Oil-based mixed media, 56 x 76 cm (CC0043)

At The Violet Hour borrows from T.S Eliot (The Wasteland). It is more than a description of twilight and has been used by writers to refer to a time or moment of transition – when daily routine and ordinariness shifts and there is an unexplained anticipation of change, of possibilities.

In the 25-hour series, I focus on Time, of the passing and marking of time, on our ideas of the sequential partitioning of time into past, present, future. What I wanted to convey is the feeling or experience of time – when a moment is thick with a certain feeling – and so, the idea of ‘the violet hour’ as time that is dense with a eeling of anticipation emerged.

Tangerine Train (2010)

Oil-based mixed media, 56 x 152 cm (CC0077)

The sound of the first trains in the very early hours of the morning would wake me and this became a ‘marker of time’ for me, even as the seasons changed and daylight hours were different. We were living near the train station in Arnos Grove. Train schedules became my clock.

I used twine and string from parcels and packaging, supermarket cartons and take-away boxes to create the ‘templates’ for my press to produce the lines and markings. I like the ordinariness of these materials as they were evidence of our interaction with everyday activities.