A World Anew

Casting skywards is to behold the cosmos, immense and old as time. Yet other adjacent worlds abound too, if lesser seen.

Microscopic – this universe is held in the tiniest of particles and atoms. Within and without, the meta and minute: these dimensions are contra in size and scale. Yet in the phrase “As above, so below”, philosophical thought pondered the “macrocosm” and “microcosm” as spheres that echo and encompass each other.

Beneath constellations of stars finds a present-day where optimism and caution intermingle. The pandemic’s most testing times seem behind but challenges loom. Nonetheless, adversity can also fuel artistic expression, compelling introspection and bold experiments.

The contemporary art of Southeast Asia has long been rooted and nourished too, by the region’s rich cultural history.

This moment sees a determination to start afresh, till the land and plant seeds. And even if beginnings can be daunting, it does not mean starting from nothing or ground ‘zero’. For no matter how minuscule or humble, a speck can contain the origins of a world: it is the tree in a seed; a human being within a cell’s DNA; an ocean’s waters constituted of three atoms conjoined.

Each minute particle enfolds the blueprint for what-may-come: potential is power; infinity can be discovered within the infinitesimal. Going forward is sometimes a return to the source.

A world anew is also, a world renewed.