Inhabitants

INHABITANTS was first conceived as an audience-participatory piece in my proposal for Khazanah’s Associate Artist Residency Programme in 2018. The initial phase of the idea was called Telling Tales and the Inhabitants title only came about as I worked on this piece during my residency in London. For the proposal, I created a group of six characters an a supporting prop which could be arranged in multiple configurations to create new stories. One of the characters, a cornhusk rat, was created in two parts so it could be arrange in a crouching or standing position. The characters are designed to play on the imagination and encourage participants to interpret them through their personal context. The intention is to evoke stories of a more universal and timeless nature.

The creation of the characters in Inhabitants was in part supported by research into myths and stories associated with the plant or animal that formed a part of the character. Some of the associated backstory do influence the character’s actions, whether they are posed in a more active or passive way. Each character is then inked in with marker on 300gsm watercolour paper which is them cut out. A magnetic strip is glued to the character’s back so they could be arranged on a metal whiteboard.

A total of forty-four characters and sixteen props were created during the residency.