Catmasutra 1 - The Usual Please

There's a systematic way of forgetting... "Systematic" is probably the right word for it, done on a mass scale and in the name of progress and profitability, and in this case, the passing of the old-fashioned coffee shops. We forget so much about it that it's enjoying a renewal, with some eateries bringing in the nostalgic tables and chairs , the coffee cups... It has become a franchise even (Kiliney Kopitiam), and sometimes I'm grateful for that. It's nice to remember!

Food courts are all over the place now, and in truth, they're like a factory (probably because it is) producing identical plastic-tasting food with an apparent lack of pride ... There is something about the old coffee shops... the old cups and saucers, the marble-top tables, the high ceiling fans, and the old man at the cashier calling the shots. They feel real somehow. The system has a way of wiping out memories making things homogeneous, identical, boring, fake. Like when they design a new bus-stop... this aerodynamic looking shelter that looks out of place if you drive by in an old -about to be scraped but still love because of the memories but no longer worth the COE kind of car. Before you know it, they're everywhere. The cute looking orange-top bus-stops I used to remember as a kid have now vanished.

Layer by layer, something is wiped out from one generation to another. What comes back to us are just fragments that surface once in a while and we smile when we recognize them, like a stored away memory dislodged. Where there's memories, there's identity, and memories must be remembered and lived, not brain-washed, and then transplanted. Each part of our island has a little identity because we live there... It would be nice if the area I live in has only orange-top bus-stops, and an authentic kopitiam that remains since my childhood. And when I visit another place where my friend lives, it would also be different with little quirks that define it, that makes it real. Old provision and coffee shops will continue to give way to 7-11 and cheers and the pretentious 24 hour- charge a bomb for drinks "kopitiams".

All Play, No Work - Catmasutra 1

"All Play, No Work" was painted for the first Catmasutra 1 exhibition held at 37 The bar in November 2004. Part of the "Nostalgic" series, it's about painting forgotten memories; collective memories that linger but remain hidden simply because our landscape is changing much faster than we can remember. "Memory is like fiction; or else it's fiction like memory." A paragraph from one of Haruki Murakami's short stories (The last lawn of the afternoon from the book, "the Elephant Vanishes"). "No matter how hard you try to put everything neatly into shape, the context wanders this way and that, until finally the context isn't there anymore. You're left with this pile of kittens lolling all over one another. Warm with life, hopelessly unstable".

Catmasutra 3 - Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Mirror, mirror on the wall is a reflection of what we can amplify! A cheeky grin everyday will make your world go round that much smoother - wahahaha. It's all about attracting the positive stuff and amplifying them. If you are just waking up and about to brush your teeth - make sure you see that spark. Too many times, I have missed them and I have to get back on track with the sutra of these cat paintings. Maybe it's about simplifying things, and trusting that things will work out eventually. They always do if we can simplify and amplify! I'm actually quite bad at that as I tend to complicate things but everything is very simple when I paint...

Catmasutra - Spashing around...

Work in progress for Before the Splash... This painting is actually quite a tedious piece as it actually involves straight lines haha... As you would have guessed, I'm a rather messy painter so getting it straight means having to somehow straighten my brain patterns... it's just not natural! And I have to be extra careful as I wait for one coat of paint to dry before I can paint the other. I used a roller to create a flat surface and tape to delineate the straight edges...

It's uncanny how I'll get paint all over the place including myself all the time... Sometimes it's hard as we just don't have any space. It would be a dream to have a big painting studio with cemented floor that you don't have to worry about getting dirty. One day, maybe that'll come true too. When I first started painting, I have to scrape the paints off the floor after each session, and then I bought the cheapest carpet from Ikea and viola! No more cleaning...Haha

It's really staisfying when the whole piece comes together! Catmasutra is about being happy and quirky, bringing all kinds of stuff from everyday things to popular culture and even high culture, and condensed them to one cheeky and happy moment. Our minds like to follow patterns, and humour helps to effect a sudden change in perception. It helps us to break the pattern, see things differently!

Painting will never be the same if the cats are not around, either having them snoozing on the bed, or chasing each other in and out of the room, or simply taking up strategic space (Angel is the main culprit here) on the floor so that I cannot move my chair. Halo has a peculiar habit as well... she loves to drink from my painting mugs... Each time when I'm most engrossed, she'll make a habit of jumping to the table and attempt to drink from the mug... And each time, like a waiter, I have to bring her a fresh mug; otherwise she'll drink the paint stained water. Sometimes I think water in the paint mugs are like Coke to her, and running water from the tap, is akin to beer! What a good life! That's what Catmasutra is about!

Catmasutra 2 - Before the Splash

"Before the Splash"(above) is a parody of "A Bigger Splash" by David Hockney (below), painted in the early summer of 1967. It depicts a swimming pool setting on a hot and cloudless day in Los Angeles. It’s a delightful interplay between strong horizontals and verticals against a diagonal diving board and the exuberance of spray, seemingly suspended in time (Maybe Hiro Nakamura was there…hahaha). There is no visible human presence here. The setting is crisp and clean, perfect and cold except for that instant of a splash…

“Before the Splash” in Catmasutra 2 is about going into reverse, and in this instance to the time “before the splash”! We realize in this alternate space, the diver is not another human being but a cat with a fish bone in its mouth. We have no idea why the cat jumps into the pool (one can only assume that it’s such a hot day that even a cat is tempted by the cool lullaby of the pool…wahahahah) ; Herein lies the process of “reversing pop art”, and the opportunity to engage one of the most iconic images of the mid-60’s. (Hockney’s earlier version “The Splash” fetched a whopping £2.6m at auction last year). To experience “Before the Splash”, you need to exert yourself, stop time and reverse it in order to pursue pure pleasure!