THE GREAT BARRIER GRIEF

So it took me ages to get motivated to do more art on coffee cups. And this time I'm determined to come  back with a shiteload of cool stuff to show you guys!

These coffee cups are created for an exhibition/ fundraising event/ auction with the theme of "Building Bridges"- http://buildingbridgessydney.com/ .They speak about the refugee/ boat people issue in Australia. I wanna capture what it is like to be a refugee, the experience and journey they have to go through.

From the top left corner:
1/ The Great Barrier Grief: an image of a sinking, cracking boat with people hands reaching out for help. The boat is angrily swallowed by the merciless storm. The tittle comes from an album of one of my fave bands "Oh Mercy" (check out my older posts)

2/Inside the fence, where the red roses grow: The children are locked inside the fence. The fence is a symbolism for a lack of freedom for refugess in concentration camps, aka Nauru and Xmas Island. Inside the fence I show the craziness and the psychological  insanity for this lack of freedom.

3/The Asylum: a pun. Refugees are also called asylum seekers. In this case, a concentration literally is a horrible asylum.

4/Lost at sea: a red version of "The Asylum". In both cups, I poke holes where the eyes present in order to integrate pain and sadness.

5/The red one isn't part of it. I forgot to take a picture of my 6th cup,doh!!

6/ The Great Waves of Massacre: I appropriate Hokkusai's The Great Wave of Mt Fuji and Van Gogh's ''Starry Night" together to create the 'waves' which wrap around the floating dead bodies.

This is how they look like from the other way

Right now I don't have the cups with me since they're getting ready for the exhibition. But promise when I get the chance I'll take more photos of them. And new stuff, to be published,soon :)