VIEW IN MY ROOM
Australia
Sculpture, Resin on Plastic
Size: 4.7 W x 11 H x 4.7 D in
Ships in a Crate
My grandfathers are Chinese migrants from China, chose to leave China to look for work in Singapore. I am a migrant from Singapore, chose to settle in Australia. Like my grandparents, I faced with displacement and loss of identity in a foreign land. Australia in the 1980s was not an easy place to settle for Asians. Race, identity, asylum, migration are sensitive issues in Australia till this day. I was raised by my grandmother in 1970s, Singapore, amidst a climate of superstitious and religious (Taoist) beliefs. In much of East Asia, tradition has it that paper effigies are crafted to imitate the appearance of the living, burnt to communicate with the dead.. I am crafting paper sculptures of me, investigating the themes of urban displacement and cultural remembrance in this vast foreign country. The sculptures are adorned with Asian motifs/images that are found in only in Asian shops across Australia. Unlike the traditional effigies, mine communicates with the living.
Sculpture:Resin on Plastic
Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork
Size:4.7 W x 11 H x 4.7 D in
Frame:Not Framed
Ready to Hang:Not applicable
Packaging:Ships in a Crate
Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.
Handling:Ships in a wooden crate for additional protection of heavy or oversized artworks. Crated works are subject to an $80 care and handling fee. Artists are responsible for packaging and adhering to Saatchi Art’s packaging guidelines.
Ships From:Australia.
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Australia
Desmond Mah is a neurodivergent Chinese-Australian artist born in Singapore who resides and creates in Boorloo (Perth, Western Australia), located on the unceded land of the Wadjak boodjar. He holds a BA (Hons) in Painting from Loughborough University in the UK and worked in art education before pursuing his career as an artist. Mah's childhood experiences in Singapore, where he was exposed to Taoist temple culture through his maternal grandmother, have had a significant impact on his art. The temple art featuring the monstrous, the grotesque and the macabre fascinates him. He migrated to Perth in the late 1980s with his father and encountered challenges as an Asian minority in a culturally different environment. These experiences and challenges have not only influenced Mah's perspective and creative vision, but also prepared him to overcome fear. In 2019, Mah almost lost a family member to suicide. Since then, the family member has been diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As it turns out, the family member is neurodivergent, which has helped Mah understand his own struggles with anxiety throughout his life. Although Mah is also neurodivergent, he does not explicitly address his disability in his practice. Instead, he utilises his neurological sensory overload mind into his works, developing a hybrid technique that combines painting and sculpture. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mah created a new embodiment of the body by combining his mark-making painting with Taoist paper effigy techniques, resulting in a grotesque hybrid form. However, this alone does not satisfy his mind. He integrates programming, mechanisms, and even smells to apply a multi-sensory dimension to his works. Mah has received awards for his paintings from various art prizes, including the E.SUN Bank Special Selection prize (Taiwan, 2022) and the Southern Buoy Studios Portrait Prize (Australia, 2021). He has exhibited in solo and group shows in Perth, Sydney and Beijing. He has also participated in residencies such as the Red Gate Residency (Beijing, 2018) where he was mentored by contemporary performance artist, He Yunchang (何云昌), researching the embodiment of the body. He has received various grants and commissions, and has an artwork in the private collection of Judith Neilson. In 2023, Mah will be participating in multiple artistic endeavours.
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