Still Depth

Still Depth explores the fragility and impermanence of nature, celebrating the diversity of plant life while acknowledging its constant state of flux. Nature is both resilient and vulnerable – beautiful, yet capable of fading if uncared for.

The exhibition title draws inspiration from the café-art gallery Dāku. The word Dāku—derived from the English “dark” and rendered in Japanese—carries a dual meaning: it refers both to the deep tonal richness of brewed Dāku coffee used as pigment in the paintings, and to the dense depth of tropical jungles that are home to the plants depicted in this series. Together, the works evoke a sense of stillness and equilibrium in nature, imagined without human destruction.

Tracing the origins of Dāku’s coffee beans – Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Mexico – the exhibition features eight paintings, each depicting a different plant family from one of these countries. For each painting, the artist used coffee brewed from beans sourced from the same country as the plants portrayed. Six plants are native or endemic, while two are naturalised, acknowledging both human impact and the potential for positive stewardship of plant diversity.

Given that coffee is an organic compound, unlike traditional pigments, a significant technical challenge arose in ensuring it could withstand the traditional wet mounting process.

Extensive experimentation was rigorously conducted by the artist to determine the precise chemical mixture to add to the brewed coffee: too much caused paper brittleness undesirable for wet mounting, while too little prevented sufficient binding and risked the coffee washing away during mounting. Resolving this challenge required patience, skill, and careful testing, and the solution became integral to the work itself.

The coffee stains in the paintings will fade over time, serving as a physical manifestation of the exhibition’s themes, embodying the transience of beauty and the fragility of the natural world

The paintings trace the journey of coffee beans: grown in their country of origin, shipped to London, roasted in Dāku, brewed, chemically treated, and painted onto rice paper mounted on silk scrolls, and they continue to transform on the paper over time.

The artist’s choice to work with traditional ink painting on rice paper reflects a parallel and personal quest into her cultural roots.

It also expresses a deep connection to her home country of Malaysia. The tropical plants depicted in the series recall the familiar landscapes of her childhood, grounding the work in memory and belonging.

Through this medium and subject matter, the exhibition becomes both an environmental reflection and an intimate meditation on home, identity, and continuity across geographies.