Love in the Time of Corona
2020
Singapore
Love in the Time of Corona is a visual response to goodwill tidings from strangers through email during the time of lockdown in Singapore in 2020. It is an initiative to encourage and lift the spirits of fellow strong womenkind during this pandemic. The artist would like to think that these emails were like companions to her, bringing comfort with messages she needed, to get through during this strange time. It is a visual diary chronicling her inner consciousness and awakening; a sober realisation and sincere appreciation for what she has, who she is and how she is becoming.
Love in the Time of Corona is part of COVID Companions by BRACK. It is a series of creative pieces featuring snippets of life during COVID-19, with a special focus on the other individuals or creatures who are keeping us company during quarantine, lockdown, ‘circuit breaker’, or whatever your equivalent might be. Here, Mary shares a chain of email exchanges with strangers, inviting connection over the digital realm during a time when intimacy and relating to others acquire new meaning.
Courage to Grow is an ode to a lifelong process called Learning; that we may choose our battles wisely with the courage of a lion and the gentle spirit of a Lamb. May we be our own lighthouse, a pulsating constant force that guides us through raging waters, tempest storms and utter darkness.
I Belong Wherever I Am is about acceptance. We are only human. We are allowed to feel, fall and despair. There is nothing shameful about it. Accepting our vulnerabilities is actually coming into strength. It is the recognition that we may be weak but we can be stronger with time. It is a reminder to ourselves to be kind to our bodies, open with our imaginations and to love ourselves, especially where we hurt the most so we can start healing. Wherever we are, we are where we need to be. To every thing, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heavens.
Dust to Dust is a reminder about mortality. Stop playing life small, Life is short. Too short to be wasted in cynicism and decadence. Too short to be resting on your laurels. Too short to take it for granted. We have the opportunity to make it good. Today, more than ever, we realise that human activity has its own ‘Butterfly Effect’, for better or for worse. May we choose our actions wisely for the betterment of the world for our future sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Have the courage to seize that life and truly live, rather than only imagining it. The world needs people like you and I, big-time players, risk takers, trail-blazers. Remember, Life is short. What will you do about it?
Love is a Verb reminds us of what’s quintessential to the human spirit and relationships. Time is passing by and never to return. We have got to be responsible for ourselves, and the people we love.
So says the fox to the little prince,
“To you I am a fox like any other, like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, you and I, we will have created a relationship, and so we will need one another. You will be unique in the world for me….It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye…Men have forgotten this truth. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed….You are responsible for your rose.”
Relationships make life worth living. Even the bad ones. Because you will learn what doesn’t work for you before eventually deciding what works for you. By choosing to show each other the support we need, that’s how we bring each other into the light. A loving relationship with any other human being is a sign of strength because the truth is, the loving is a long, painful and tough road. But by taking the decision to remain committed to stay, that is what keeps us going. Truly, we get by with a little help from our friends.
Listening is a whole body sensorial experience. It is not selective. It is intuitive and informed simultaneously. Listening asks that you pay attention to your bodily sensations and cognitive processes. It requires you to unlearn, learn and relearn information so that you can eventually make your own decisions. It centres you in the present so it can help you fix the things you need for the future. Listening can be uncomfortable because it is confronting but liberating when you get it right. Sometimes listening can come in the guise of anxiety, fear and doubt; they tell you things that make you fall. Hey, nobody said it’s going to be easy. But with practice, it becomes a habit, easier.
Listening is a teacher that never gives up on you, on others. He teaches patience, sensitivity and respect to help you with your discernment. He demonstrates how to engage your body so that it functions like doors; doors to new people, experiences, opportunities and adventures. And to reject anything that’s toxic to you. He can help you become a better version of yourself. Anything can be… if only you’d listen to yourself.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 1:11
Faith is the knowledge and wisdom of the heart beyond reason, beyond proof. Having faith is like swimming into the night not knowing where to go but you just go believing you’re going somewhere. There’s neither a horizon of land in sight, nor a sliver of light. You can’t see it yet, but you know it’s right there as long as you keep swimming. It isn’t passive patience but more like a tenacious spirit that pushes you through.
She believes that doing an excellent job is not the only end goal but that the journey towards it is. It is to be pursued with consistency, discipline, patience, integrity and willpower. Choose one thing, and do it well. You must have a hunger to finish what you started and an open-minded attitude to suffer it through. Remember, how sweet the taste of success at the end of your pursuit is, is what you bring to it.
Faith is Light is Guide is about finding my way back home to myself.
Mary ends this series with the quote by Raina Maria Rilke that she sent to Quek Jia Qi when she first received the chain email. Every time she feels myself hardening with insecurities and anxiety, she reads this and she can feel herself soften.
It is not easy to walk a path that is yours alone but it is crucial because no one can take that away from you. She always believe that the tougher the path, all the more we’ve got keep choosing to keep on going. But it’s easier said than done. How easy it is to say “Live everything” but to even understand the meaning of it is beyond us. She recently learnt the difference between understanding and comprehending from a dear friend. Understanding is only head knowledge but comprehending is heart knowledge; empathy. You’d only comprehend when you’ve lived it.
To Live is to experience and embrace your life, and all that is not. It is doing and undoing, activity and passivity, life and death, presence and absence. To live is to die to our Self over and over again. Think of it as rebirths. If we can practice such a mentality, she believes that the answers we have been seeking will come to us as natural as breathing is.
To conclude, what started out as an ordinary attempt to get back into the rhythm of creating turned into a new completed body of personal work – self-portraiture in some symbolic way – something which Mary. has not been able to do since 2015.
She learnt that her body is a house with many rooms. It is a home, and she is coming home to herself, opening new doors she never knew was there. She realised this is the conversation that she needed to have with herself for a long time and in doing so, she has gained clarity about myself. Everything she needs is within her; who she is, where she needs to go, and how to go about it, it is much clearer to her now.
She believes that beginnings and endings are one and the same; They are transitions, metamorphosis. Be patient. Time is everything as with now is the time for everything.