Why , 2025. Acrylic, pencil, and rooibos tea on canvas, 130 x160 cm.

In this painting, the word “Why” drifts through the surface like tall grass moving in the wind. The many why’s that press into my own life, and into the wider world, rustle quietly but persistently here.

At the core of the work is the word mother, written in abstracted Hangul. It becomes a steady pulse beneath everything else, a reminder that in an increasingly polarised world, one truth remains universal: each of us comes from a mother.

The marks layered across the painting come from tools rooted in the domestic sphere rather than the studio. Permanent markers, biro, and pencil mingle with traces made by a pot brush, a toilet brush, a nail scrub, a bottle brush, objects tied to everyday care and labour. “Domestic stains” like Rooibos tea seep into the surface as well. Grown in South Africa and carried into global kitchens since the early 2000s, the tea brings with it another quiet thread: how materials travel, how the ordinary becomes part of larger stories of movement and exchange.