In Conversation with Jacelyn Zhen

• Tell us a little about yourself.  

I am a visual artist and designer from Singapore. I am interested in the intersection of art, interiors and music. Besides my art practice, I dj and enjoy discovering music. My colour palette is synonymous to the sounds I am drawn towards, whimsical, spacey, synthy and bright. Trained in design, I did my undergrad in fashion. I worked as a brand designer while developing my art practice, Bbblob. Recently, I completed my masters in painting at the Royal College of Art. I work across paintings, sculpture, murals and public art. 

• How would you describe your practice? 

My practice sits between painting and object making. I play with collage to explore paper cutouts and assemble forms into imagined landscapes. As a teenager, I was exploring collage, collecting magazine cutouts, compiling folders of collages, organising images and ideas into moodboards. In a way, I developed a personal way of learning and connecting ideas through collage making. Using my collage process, I work with wood to assemble my works into woodcut reliefs and sculptures. My work is an extension of my emotions. As I reshape and assemble my emotions, my memories, I experience the shifting beauty and transience of nature. The artwork becomes a vessel, like a body, reflecting our inner landscapes. My work is influenced by my relationship with nature, and our wider connection to the environment. I see my work as a playful expression of nature, where elements are self-generating and balancing one another. 

What materials do you work with? 

I work with paper to develop initial ideas and colour studies. Then, the ideas get translated into wood, using plywood for woodcuts and shaped canvas frames, birch for furniture. Initially, I was cutting the pieces by hand at various wood workshops. For larger pieces, I work with a fabricator to produce them on the CNC. The pieces are hand sanded through multiple rounds of sanding to create a rounded, smooth and organic touch. 

• Who or what do you take inspiration from? 

I think in forms, symbols and patterns. The way I express is connected to how I organise my thoughts and emotions. Through my travels, I have been inspired by symbols such as glyphs from various cultures. The geometry and patterns in cultural symbols create interesting ways of visual communication, messages that shape our memory and understanding. I am fascinated by this universal geometry across visual languages. As a designer, I am interested in working with symbols to express concepts. In my art practice, I translate this way of visual thinking into my personal shape language. There is an affinity with nature when developing my forms and it is linked to the geometry of glyphs. Every curve, corner and wave is inspired by a leaf form, an intersection in the fields and a valley in the landscape. Growing up in Singapore, I am influenced by the biophilic nature and the constructed environments. My colours tend to be pastel and bright, embodying a sense of comfort, feelings of embrace, searching for harmony. 

• Your work is currently on show at ARC Painswick  Can you explain how your work came to be in an ARC property?

Coming to London, I was interested in interior and public art collaborations. I had the chance to work on similar projects in Singapore and was looking to grow as an artist. Some of my past projects include collaborating on an art rug for Singapore Art Week, and a public mural for a shopping mall, Orchard Central. Working with ARC Salon was a wonderful platform to present my new furniture exploration, the Traces side table, as well as curate works in a warm interior setting. Being able to present works together with a thoughtful interior space provides an intimate experience for people to interact and live with the artworks. It was a meaningful way to combine both my interest in art and interiors.