Cherie Khoo Wei Ling

Theme: In Search of Hope

Special Mention, School Category, 2021

Artist statement:

This artwork portrays a failing organ which is the black heart that is slowly losing its life. Hoping to give life to it once again, a girl is reaching out as high as possible with a paintbrush in her hand to smear the colour red, that represents blood and life, over the black heart. The heart is attached to the girl’s tangled hair and she desperately tries to break free of her own chains of illness and pain, wanting to be saved. She holds on to the paintbrush as a sign to ‘live on’ despite knowing that it hurts to save herself by staying awake. She wants something, or rather someone, to hold her together, to support her. To paint her heart with her, and assure that what she’s painting is worth her endurance and resilience- until she remembers what is like to have a normal heart.

About the Artist

Cherie Khoo Wei Ling, 15
Hua Yi Secondary School