Foreword
Cheryl Chiw works with scavenged materials. She is presently expressing with iron oxide and the invisible forces of neodymium magnets. Precariousness and tension characterise her artworks. Form and the formless seek equilibrium in a tripartite of surface, material, and forces. Ignoring hierarchy, the artist wonders: is it the material that guides or is it an interconnected relationship? How does the invisible force materialises and reconfigures another form?
This project mirrors such times when our way of life becomes suspended in an ‘in-between’ state. This presentation takes one into a realm of ‘hidden narrative’. Each encounter is a piece of the puzzle that triggers. What provocations is the artist seeking to ignite?
Returning To
The Unfamiliar
Once again, we are reminded of our precariousness. An unseen force disrupts fibrous structures, unravelling façades upon which we have built artificially mastered reality.
We find ourselves in flux, always in transitory states between opposites. Everything is connected. Differing forms of one and the same journey across cycles going from the formless to form and then back again, ceaselessly.
There is beauty in that rhythmic oscillation.
bardo 
Without direction, without purpose. the end of the known leads to the unfamiliar. We are apprehensive for reasons that elude us. Have we become so conditioned by the confines that we have set for ourselves, that when the same confines are removed, we feel totally at lost? We clamour for a sense of security. Willing to shackle ourselves. Craving normalcy – a willingcage – within which, we feel protected.
bardo I, 2020 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
00:56 min
bardo II, 2020 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
00:49 mins
serendipity 
Splinters – industrial waste stripped of value – present themselves complete with earned blemishes and incidental marks. The side effects of the culmination of factors – heat, human intervention and material threshold playing against one another – tease and lure the curious.
Invisible forces are at work. Magnetism counteracts gravity, creating a sphere of influence that forms and holds a mesmerising landscape together. An intricate weaving of the material and the immaterial which can come easily undone if any one of its interconnected parts is disturbed.
serendipity I, 2020 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
01:03 mins
serendipity II, 2021 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
01:00 mins
serendipity III, 2021 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
01:01 mins
serendipity IV, 2021 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
01:01 mins
serendipity V, 2021 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
00:49 mins
microverse 
An appreciation of smallness. An acknowledgment of transience. Drawing consciousness inwards and fixing it in single pointedness. It is calming and assuring when oneness is again experienced. A microverse of harvested metal particles emerges in an equilibrium of opposing forces. The unconscious force of magnetism counteracts and plays with the conscious force of intent in a dance that straddles between states. Always in flux, alive but also lifeless concurrently.
microverse IV, 2017 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
01:43 mins
microverse VII, 2020 video still
single-channel HD video
16:9 aspect ratio, colour, stereo
00:58 mins
Ar
‘microverse2020 serendipity’ Ar allows remote audience to place the artwork assets against their immediate environment. The act transcends space, time and boundaries. Momentarily meriging the ‘physical’ world and the ‘virtual’ which have been separated only by an ultra-thin reflective glass – the black mirror of our own devices.
scan or tap QRcode to get microverse asset
credits: cherylchiw (artwork, videoart, sound). boonlai x mentalworks (copywriting) cheryl x mentalworks (videoedit, artsite development, digital content)
©2020 CHERYLCHIW . MENTALWORKS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.