Janice Chin’s world focuses on internal struggle rather than external image. Executed in softly naturalistic pastel with commendable skill and technique, her figures demonstrate confinement within the edges of the painting, an expression of the internal being struggling to break free. We care too much of the outside world and pay scant attention to the hidden self inside, the one we should turn to when troubled. We struggle instead in silence.

The Dual Series consists of two identical figures in one or separate paintings, representing two sides of the same person. In 'It Is Nice To Finally Meet You' the external persona meets her inner self, as the one confronts the other. Clouds in most of the dual series remain an external reminder of the outside world to the trapped inner self, creating a surreal, unrealistic calm environment to the seething tensions that battle inside. In an emerging, as yet untitled, series of male nudes, we observe men in various restricted poses, bending, crouching in fetal position, perhaps struggling to unleash their true selves in a world of demanding expectations…

Dr. Pwee Keng Hock
Managing Partner, Utterly Art
3/3/06

 

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Janice Chin’s pastel works are a metaphorical comment on the human condition. In particular, they deal with the emotion of humans struggling in silence for survival.

The figures in her surreal, dream-like artworks usually fill the whole frame, dramatically creating a sense of limitation and imprisonment, a voice shouting for freedom, coming from the inner self. The focus is on the facial expression, a powerful emotional magnet which draws our attention to the person.

Her search for a suitable art medium for her paintings led her to several experiments and eventually back to her most familiar medium, soft pastels.

Janice’s works have been short listed at the prestigious 2003 UOB Painting of the Year competition and earned her Merit recipient of the prestigious Della Butcher Award 2003. Her current Dual Series is based on the concept of twins and explores the longing of one’s spirit to seek greater meaning as well as the need for an individual identity.

Karen Phan (Writer)
Gajah Gallery
2005