The artwork titled "Fairy Tales from the Celestial Garden" by Jayanto Tan is exhibited at the Counihan Gallery, Merri-Bek Town Hall, Victoria, from February 1 to April 27.
Through this work, Jayanto combines the story of his family from North Sumatra with Chinese calligraphy inspired by his father's ancestors who were Taoists.
The Sydney-based artist uses pandan as his drawing tool. Pandan is chosen because pandan is connected to Jayanto's family culture who use pandan every day.
Jayanto uses pandan liquid to create a painting of Mandarin characters which means "Double Happiness" in English.
In addition to the use of pandan for painting. Jayanto also presents a display of a fish pond using rice media and various properties that are depicted as food dishes.
Jayanto said that the display is related to his childhood memories during Chinese New Year. When he was little, Jayanto was asked by his mother to get fish from the pond behind his house during the celebration.
In this exhibition, Jayanto also invites visitors to make their own 'Double happiness' symbols or letters from paper and install them on a wall called 'kampoeng wall-mural'.
