Some of you may have been following the textile art updates in my newsletter, and read about the process of my current coral artwork theme on this blog. And so, I’m happy to announce that my new coral textile art exhibition, Hues of Loss, will be happening from 17 - 25 June at aNERDgallery in Singapore. The idea behind this has been in my mind for three years, but the conceptualisation did not start until last year when I began all the experiments!

This exhibition could not have been possible without Singapore community initiative, Our Singapore Reefs. It is also supported by National Art Council, Singapore, and aNERD Gallery. Material support is by Madeira Singapore and Muta.Wear.

Special thanks to my two team members, Sam Shu Qi and Kai Kei Cheng. Sam is the co-founder of Our Singapore Reefs, a community initiative that aims to promote awareness about Singapore's marine biodiversity and provide a platform for academics, businesses, NGOs and agencies to work together for a common cause. She provided the invaluable scientific advice to the exhibition, the educational aspect to the event, and helped put together the panel discussion on coral reefs. Kai Kei is an IT professional with over 20 years of experience in software and hardware design, and was instrumental in getting the technology behind the interactive reef piece working, including the selection of hardware, programming and coding.

Inspiration Behind Hues of Loss

Did you know that we have lost half of the world’s coral reefs since the 1950s?

Hues of Loss looks at the beauty and fragility of coral reefs in light of the environmental threats that they face on a daily basis, including pollution, warming seas and increasing water acidity. In 2017, the documentary, Chasing Coral, was one movie that motivated me to create textile art that is inspired by these underwater creatures. And my journey has grown from there and being further inspired by the coral reefs I saw closer to home - Pulau Merambong, Malaysia, and along the Keppel Bay area in Singapore - I drew upon their shapes and textures, to create 3 new series of works - Bleached, Fragile Beauty and Relics.

Each series is a snapshot of corals in different environmental states, and is used to illustrate the dire situation that these creatures face. Here is a sneak peek of part of the work, but you will have to come down to the aNERDgallery to see the final works!

From left to right, Bleached, Fragile Beauty and Relics

Textile art exhibition by Agatha Lee (Agy)

BLEACHED

How does human activity impact corals?

The pressures the corals are facing are immense due to a combination of stresses, including changing climate, habitat destruction and pollution, all resulting from man’s voracious appetite for continual growth. In fact, 50% of the world’s corals have been because of this. Changes to their living environment, in particular warming seas, causes the damaging coral bleaching process to begin, uncovering the haunting white limestone skeleton.

To depict this tragedy, I created a 2m long interactive wall mural of delicate soft sculptured corals using free motion embroidery, hand stitching and shibori. We incorporated technology to make the sculpture interactive so that visitors can see how changes in the environment will cause the reef to undergo stress and eventually bleach.

One of the difficulties I had with this piece was how to diffuse the LED lights and choose colours that would also depict the ocean. Eventually, I settled for an ocean floor rippling effect, and diffused the lights with calico fabric and honeycomb kraft paper.

FRAGILE BEAUTY

What is left of the world’s coral reefs?

Fragile Beauty examines the constrained environment that the remaining corals inhabit, facing numerous anthropogenic pressures that impede their growth and survival, including rising sea temperatures, escalating water acidity, and pollution. I had been experimenting with Broderie Anglaise since last year. Although Broderie Anglaise features in all of the series, Fragile Beauty showcases coloured stitches to represent the living corals. I intentionally rendered this series of works on a smaller scale to highlight the significant decline of coral reefs, and these are showcased in embroidered hoops, to show on restricted their living environment is.

RELICS

What if we did nothing and let the status quo remain?

The final series of work invites the viewer to imagine a world without corals should we continue on mankind’s current path of consumption. Instead of visiting the oceans to see corals, we would have visit the museum to see coral specimens, and even coral fossils. In this series, embroidered remnant organza and concrete-encased embroidery is used to recreate coral specimens and coral fossils. These are displayed in clear museum-like cases, casting a bleak vision that coral reefs might become artefacts of the past if we don’t take action soon.

shop artwork

Use of Remnant Materials

Remnant organza features prominently in this series of art work, and were used out of concerns about mankind’s rapid pace of consumption today. These fabrics were taken from unwanted clothes and old wedding gowns, in a bid to reduce waste in my art-making.