The work of Christine Ay Tjoe delves into the human condition with her explorations on philosophy and spirituality, revealing an inner world of private thoughts, melancholy and struggle. Demonic Possession is part of a body of new work and marks a period of transition in both her career and the stylistic changes of her paintings. In this new series, she takes an abstract look at the state of the world, with a focus on the global, consumer age and its attendant issues: hyper-urbanization, density of population, information overload, and greed arising from the relentless pursuit of material wealth.As its title suggests, Demonic Possession could be read as both an abstract depiction of demonic control, or as a frenzied state of being alluding to tensions born out of the modernization of today’s world. The textural swathes of red paint and bruise-like patches convey a sense of urgency and agitation, and the expressive lines reveal the artist’s roots in the discipline of printmaking, especially in the dry-point technique. To Ay Tjoe, these abstract forms are metaphors for figures of authority, suggesting powerful witnesses, figureheads or ‘gods’ – forces that influence and shape human behavior.
