Dexter Sy’s If Things were Perfect focuses on the oddity of things, in where twin portraits and faces of dead people merge with red drippings gold etched drawings of other strange objects and characters. The irony of the dead like portraits lie on the fact that they are smiling, which provides a creepier effect on the paintings itself, with their purple/red lips and pale blue faces. Up to these phase his painstaking effort of details on drawings are still very prevalent, which in turn rewards his works with a reflection of both beauty and artistic perseverance. As much as the symbols providing an effect of arcane symbolism, this time the artist adds mysterious numbers and dates strewn around the imageries, creating a stranger cloud of ambiguous absurdity.
Artist Statement
Indeed it is true that the only constant thing is change.
As an artist, I have evolved through time from my medium to my subjects. As I track down my progress, I believe I have started to understand my subliminal thoughts through ink on paper. Family beliefs and traditions basically mold my style and my focus. Eventually, these concealed thoughts of fear, anger, mystery and morbidity divulged themselves into my works. Curiosity also plays a big role in defining my subjects.
As years passed, I have found a better medium for my thoughts to play on by exploring ink on canvas and eventually mixed media. A variety of ideas found a new playground on my canvas and then I grasp the idea of how reality encompasses most of our subconscious thoughts.
Though I may not fully understand how these thoughts happen, I just let them reveal themselves and let my audience interpret whatever they see in my work. I believe that through my art, I can communicate with my audience’s dreams and memories.
Aside from my own experiences, I am truly influenced by some local and international artists from all walks of life who captured the intricate ideas of the human spirit. On how things are meant to be unexplained yet admired through people’s art. How imagination made this world infinite and tangible. How history and people’s own culture craft its own story that often inspired me to create.
My drawings on canvas made me draft unconscious ideas of people and of myself. I am creating a cycle of having different kind of concepts but retaining the same style and technique I have known when I began as an artist. By this technique, I mark my own identity and thus, I create eagerness to evolve as an artist through my chosen art.
