‘Tutup sikit daging tu, nanti orang ingat nak hidang.’ 

A statement I heard from a grown man as a child, it was something that has always haunted me growing up, among other sayings that equated females as objects or a dish, with many more hypersexualized remarks. The equating of women as objects, to the misogynistic referencing of the flesh of women being arousing ‘meat’, or dishes, such phrases often used on females. 'Barang baik' 'Sedap' etc. 

The artwork fronts the violent emotion as well as physical representation of reducing the aliveness of a human being to an object, something that births a very traumatizing experience to the human soul. 

‘1 Cup, Berapa KG?’ which translates to ‘How many KG for 1 Cup? 

is a piece that highlights the prevalence of the issue of sexual assault and violence against women and how rape culture strives so transparently. The title asks on weighing the question of the complexities of dealing with emotional and physical trauma accumulating through years, trauma becomes like an ingredient, that every woman bears with,  the body of a woman is treated as though an object or dish, the piece asks women the weight of their trauma, envisioned through the bra cup that is made parallel to a cooking measurement cup as though a recipe, for measuring an ingredient. A white bra is chosen to hold the raw meat, from the thawing of the meat the blood seeps into the white bra revealing a color similar to that of the bare naked skin. Held in a forceful and uncomfortable manner, with petrified hands, symbolizes both an abusers point of view as well as the victims sentiment on dealing with the uncomfortable subject matter and on trauma.

The piece is an accumulation, through the years of personal experience, hearing stories, safe spaces and counseling closed female friends and other women through their traumas. 

From a wave of young women online sharing harrowing accounts of sexual assault and the violence they’ve face in their lifetime as women in Malaysia, outing the perpetrators and calling for change. It sparked a movement where other women in solidarity braved to share their own personal stories that have been kept in the dark, shedding light on the severity of how common and severe rape culture is for women in Malaysia today. The surge of stories were also very triggering for fellow sufferers who empathize and correlate to these accounts flooding the online platforms.