Thesis catalog presented to the MFA Fine Arts program, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. © Yam Chew Oh, April 2019.

[ PREFACE ]

I believe artists don’t really get to “choose” what they make.

On the 2017 anniversary of my late father’s death, I started making sculptures using objects found on my commute in Baltimore. I can’t explain why. It just happened. It’s as if the art chose me.

My late father, my mother, and my late sister-in-law inspired this body of work. Dad was barely 60 when he passed in May 2010 after his third stroke. Mom, 75, continues to honor him after all these years. Pam was just 29 when she was taken from us in October 2018.

2018 was a year of immense challenges and deep introspection. I survived appendicitis surgery, related complications, and six bereavements. Throughout that potent period, family, relationships, mortality, and the fragility of life and time were constantly on my mind.

The sculptures in this catalog reflect the frames of mind and states of being I was in when I made them. Composed of humble and mundane materials, they are intimate and emotional manifestations of personal stories, life-changing moments, and precious memories that I’m afraid to lose. They are abstract meditations on life and time, mysteries intrinsically at odds with each other.

When these enigmas collide, the impact is often intense, baffling, and sad. But, if we see beyond the brunt, the residuum can be beautiful, even transformative.