Nicole Phua

Picture: Name of work: Body, Psyche, and Self ¹

For Wu Wei Performance Art Series

The sweetness of idling

Format: 

A durational performance.

Medium: 

White fabric bag, light bulb, peanuts.

Description:

Peanuts are often seen as a symbol of something auspicious; long life, good health, and prosperity. The Chinese character of the word peanut, 花生 (huāshēng), can be translated to several other meanings such as spending life, or growing flower.

During the performance ‘the sweetness of idling’, the figure who sits in a white fabric bag filled with peanuts, will peel the nuts from its shell and offer it to audiences as a form of blessing. The audiences are only able to see the silhouette of the figure in the bag, spending her time peeling peanuts for the receiver to grow and bloom.

Will the blessing be granted to those who receive? Do they have to work, or are they just waiting for good things to come?

Time: 8.30pm, for approx. 1 hour.

Location: Your Mother Gallery

Dates: 17 June 2018 (Sunday)

Biography: 

Nicole Phua (b.1997), based in Singapore, is a visual artist working primarily in the form of performance and installation art. She graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art with Distinction from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2017. She expresses her journey towards spiritual enlightenment in her multimedia works, dealing with the issue of death and life. She has been commissioned to paint by Art Apart Fair 9th Edition and Singapore Armed Forces and has also received Raffles Country Scholarship Award and Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Scholarship Award. She is currently an art teacher in Art Village, Singapore.

Website: www.nicolephua23.weebly.com

Instagram: @not23.pjj

Notes:

1. Body, Psyche, and Self

   Peformed 1 hour each day for 7 days
   Wood, chalkboard paint, chalk, sound element, bulb,
   122cm x 80cm x 190cm
   2017

   Based on the book ‘De Anima’ by Aristotle, the work ‘Body, Psyche, and Self’ questions the fundamental of life – the presence of a soul. With body being matter and soul being form, as described by Aristotle, the installation represents the body, while the performance represents the presence of a soul. Using symbolic representations such as geometric shapes and a light source, I portray the connection between the spirit, body, and mind.

   The performance includes an audience interactive element where they are invited to calculate their Life Path Number and write it on the exterior walls of the installation.

   There is also a play of sound element in the interior of the installation, which enhances the meditativeness of the portal that I have created in search of the consciousness within. It is a combination of 432 hertz (Hz) and 528 Hz sound frequency which boosts healing with its natural harmony in resonation with cosmic harmony. The purpose of combining philosophy by Aristotle and numerology as a method is to seek understanding and connection with my inner self that I am not aware of. This work portrays the process of seeking what lies within the physical body.