Orihon Codex of the Flame, Shell, Swan and Mer-Lion

Orihon Codex of the Flame, Shell, Swan and Mer-Lion. 2023. 
 
Exhibited at Sculpture 2502, Singapore as part of Paper Trails between Lion and Swan, Singapore Art Week.
 
Canvas, paper and Silk, botanical inks Indigo, Myrolaban, Wax.  Screen Printed Origami Folding Concertina Scroll. 140cm (H) x 300cm (W) x 0.2 cm (D) When Open and 30cm (H) x 70cm (W) x 35 cm (D) when closed.
 
In the age of the ‘Archival turn’ Ashe delves into allegorical, symbolic and mythological narratives, to subvert, intervene or disrupt the colonial archive and to contemplate both harmonious and difficult moments of cultural collision.  The Orihon Codex of the Flame, Shell, Swan and Mer-Lion is a contemporary form of Origami and Scroll making, where the printed mountains and valleys of the folded origami hint at the complex dimension of relations across the vast Austral-Asian geographic basin.  In depicting the Mer-Lion and the Swan amongst the Shell, Fire, and a geometric grid, the work asks the viewer to consider their own projections and understandings of the multiple social, geographic and symbolic links between the Republic of Singapore and the city of Perth in Western Australia.