"Home" Series (2024)

The paintings

About the series

Update 2024 May: The exhibition was a great success! There's a very good article written about it, link here. Much thanks to my friends and supporters!

As of today there's only one more available work from this series. For the available work, and other works, please get in touch with Mr Lim's Shop of Visual Treasures (https://www.mrlimsshopofvisualtreasures.com).

Artist's note: Apologies for the rather un-edited text. It's a little "run-on" at times, but I think I will leave it as it is, as a very important record which may be more significant in the years and decades to come.

About "Home".

I have lived in this house for 24 years. It is already an old home to me- the paint is peeling and cracking at places, the kitchen cabinets are mouldy; certain switches don't work; the bathroom ceiling is cracking. We have never renovated the house, retaining the original features such as the kitschy fake columns and rounded door frames left by the previous occupants. I didn't even like the texture of the walls back then. But these things grow on you, and I've come to really cherish the questionable architectural features, the aging walls, the dusty forgotten corners. The house is very much a significant part of my memories, almost like it is a family member.

     So many things have happened in this space of 24 years- my mother passed away 20 years ago, my older siblings are already married and have moved out. All that remains is just papa and I, and our now much more empty home. I wasn't always a good son- I had my periods of angst and anger, and as much as I liked the safety of home, I wanted to prove myself too, much like how my papa was when he was a young man himself. 5 years back, I decided to further my arts education in Russia, at the ripe old age of 32 years old. That is a story for another time, but suffice to say, the experiences, both the difficulties and small victories, taught me something which may sound cliche - that in the end, the answer you seek, has always been in you all this while. It took me so much suffering to be able to come to my senses, that whatever it was that was lacking in my life, cannot be found in any external place or person- that inner peace and harmony between values and action, words and deeds, can only be solved, untangled, when one confronts the "real" self honestly and critically, but also without harsh judgment. 

     But anyway, the reason that I decided to give up my hard-won scholarship and come back home was because of my father. Papa is already nearly 70 years old, and if we are blessed, he might live another 20 years, nobody knows. The sobering fact is this- with each passing year that I am away from home, is another year of missed memories, lost opportunities, periods of words and even silence which, when that bitter day comes, I will regret not spending it with papa. My father is a great man, a true hero. He has suffered and lost much, much more, and the things he had been through, would have broken any lesser man. But not my papa. It will be the highest unfilial act if I allowed any harm to come to me, to prevent my safe return. Papa has already lost a lot in life, and our time together is already numbered. Soon I will be old myself. I do not wish this period of life to just slip away, lost in the hubris of youth. 

     This homecoming was difficult emotionally, because of the weight of guilt at having lost precious years away from home. The paintings presented here is not just a love letter to my home, but is dedicated to my dear father, whom without, I would not even have existed.

Samuel Chen

2024, Singapore.