The tip of the iceberg
The canvas is divided into two. The top; a vibrant pink with a serene swan in the foreground. The bottom; a chaos of mark-making, doodles, and scribbles layered upon each other, with a samurai mask emerging in the foreground.
The main theme of this painting is external calm versus internal chaos. The graffiti serves as a metaphorical space for all the different voices inside oneself—each fighting for attention and often conflicting in nature. Curiosity, joy, love, and the urge to go in a hundred different directions. The chaos of being pulled back and forth. The tension between one’s wants, needs, true desires, and what the outside world demands.
The most visible graffiti reads Just Love. This is a play on Nike’s famous slogan Just Do It. It sits at the forefront of the mind as a guiding value—a mantra to repeat when the way forward feels unclear.
The samurai mask represents the struggle to maintain order within chaos. It requires dedication and the conscious choice to keep fighting for balance, again and again.
The swan emerges, almost blending and flickering into existence from the samurai mask, as the flowering of these actions—the metamorphosis of chaos into order. The pink not only provides a strong visual contrast but also carries with it a vibrant calm.
The title came as a surprise to me. Though the words themselves may not resonate directly with the painting, the metaphor is so well known that it immediately steers the viewer’s mind in a particular direction. By and large, it encompasses the intention behind the work: the idea of only seeing a fragment of the whole picture. The calm and serenity of the surface conceal the chaos beneath.
About the use of abstract graffiti throughout this series.
When you look at a wall full of random graffiti, scribbles, and raw doodles in the streets, it’s rare to stop and admire the aesthetics.
When I look at such walls, which I often have walked past in Peckham and south London, it feels like hearing many different voices demanding attention. Each with something they believe is important to say. These marks come from diverse group of people, whose lives and experiences are unknown. Sometimes the message is a joke, sometimes political, and sometimes deeply personal with a meaning that is lost to a stranger.
I love this idea.
It becomes a visual expression of, as well as a way to explore, all the different voices inside /outside oneself. The layering also gives a sense of time, of a past and present, and an idea that is in constant motion.
