Suburban Culture Crisis
Meegan Lim
Magazines, Acrylic, Matte Gel on Wood Panel
Walk through a suburb. What do you think lies behind the door of each cookie-cutter home? What lies is culture, shaping a family with anything from language to religion. Culture ultimately shapes the way you live your life, and the perspective you view the world from. Growing up in Canada, more specifically the suburbs of Brampton, I have struggled to maintain elements from my Malaysian-Chinese background, and incorporate them with the surrounding Canadian culture. Although Canada is known to be multicultural and inclusive, I have always faced a small feeling of isolation among the strong Western and Oriental stereotypes.
For this project, I decided to display the “boxes”/stereotypes people often place me in, through a triptych. Starting from the left, I chose to show the perspectives my relatives in Malaysia (and the rest of the world) view Canada from. Stereotypes exaggerated by media display Canada as cold and lonely, yet peaceful. However, from a Canadian point of view, Malaysia is viewed as a tropical vacation destination, that has some political corruption and mystery. Yet some of these extreme stereotypes have truth to
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The unity between the three pieces are supported with the use of asymmetrical balance – where the repetition of similar collage material and painted text create a pattern for the viewer to follow. The use of colour is an essential component of this triptych, as each collage emits a different mood with their colour scheme. With the Malaysia collage, teal and orange analogous schemes are prominent to display the tropical environment. Whereas, the Canada collage is mainly a monochromatic blue scheme to depict the cold, “true north”. Lastly with the Home collage, lies a monochromatic grey scheme with various bright colours bursting out the door, to show how each home holds an unique