"It was a challenge to try different types of paper, such as daluang and tracing paper, along with other mediums like watercolor. In the end, however, I returned to my usual approach of using oil paint and regular paper. Togog During the Golden Hours started from a cropped photograph taken by Beryl de Zoete during her time in Bali in the 1930s. I encountered her archive while studying my MA in London, where I was able to see many of her photographs at the Horniman Museum. Looking at these images made me think about how much our understanding of the past is shaped by photographs, especially images that are already distant, blurry, and incomplete.

I wanted to keep that sense of uncertainty in the painting. The blurry quality of the original photograph becomes a way of thinking about memory itself: something that slowly fades, changes, and becomes romanticised over time. The togog feels like a fragment from another Bali, one that exists somewhere between historical documentation and an imagined paradise.

The green hue comes from my own memory of Bali as an incredibly green landscape. At the same time, that greenery feels increasingly nostalgic as rice fields and open spaces are replaced by villas, cafés, and other developments. By bringing together an archival photograph, my own memory, and the act of painting, I am interested in how images can construct our idea of paradise, and how that paradise changes depending on who is looking."