ABOUT THE WORK

A Stagnant Stack is a digitally manipulated self-portrait that explores the compulsion for personal excellence and a paralysing fear of stagnancy. The duplicated figures depict the accumulated and Sisyphean attempts in personal improvement, and its seeming futility during the pandemic. The doubling motif is also contextualised by psychoanalysis theories on the duality and interchangeability of performed social identities.

Credit:
Photoshoot facilitated by Chester Siu and friends

Reflection

I reflect on sustaining ambition and motivation in the recent climate. Informed by think pieces to introspect and seek personal growth, the narrative the work presents appears to be protesting this forced productivity. However productivity is presented with the ironic involvement of inventiveness, discipline and labour in creating the work.