When Will You Listen to Me?

When Will You Listen to Me? explores the artist’s experience growing up as an ethnic minority, indigenous to the Malay Archipelago where Singapore, his home country is situated. Nazerul’s new body of ceramic works takes the pressures he experienced from his cultural, religious, and state-driven pressures as a starting point and translated them into handbuilt medicinal jars decorated with classical Malay Language and Mandarin literary aphorisms that encapsulates the artist’s endeavour to heal psycho-social trauma.

Using Bahasa Melayu (Malay Language) rendered in the Jawi Script (modified Perso-Arabic script adopted to write Classical between the 12th to the late 20th century) and Mandarin aphorisms and proverbs surrounding the themes of secrets, healing, success and leaving home, Nazerul plans to convey his message using ceramic objects implying alchemical processes and vessels informed by medieval apothecary jars that contain ingredients for healing but are also storage containers wherein emotions are bottled and secrets are kept in fear of disapproval and rejection, only to ferment and bubble over in due time.