The Symmetry of Shadows and Soul

The Vision: A Tale of Two Sides

In my latest piece for the Desaru Whispers: Flora and Fauna collection, I've been sitting with a question that keeps pulling me back to the canvas — what happens when two worlds collide on a body?

This swimming costume is my answer. It's a living canvas, split into two truths:

The Right Side carries a real, black-and-white photo montage of the Johor photography building. I chose a real image deliberately — I wanted to ground this piece in history. In the grit. In the shadows and the skeletal beauty of what people call the "Ghost City." There's something haunting and honest about that architecture, and I didn't want to romanticise it away.

The Left Side is mine — my abstract acrylic flora paintings. The motifs you've seen me dabbing with water and paint in my studio. The "hidden power." Vibrant, colourful, alive.

The Process: Desktop to Drawing

In the video, you'll see me sketching through how these two worlds merge. I study the sharp lines of the Johor building on my desktop screen, and I translate that architectural aggression — the hard edges, the rigid geometry — into the structure of the garment.

But this isn't just about placement on fabric. It's about the waistline.

The curve of a woman's body becomes the bridge. The silent stone of the city on one side. The wild, untamed growth of the jungle on the other. The waist is where they meet — and where the story lives.

Wearable History

I want the person wearing this to feel the depth of what they're carrying.

On your right: the Ghost City — the memory of what was.
On your left: the Flora and Fauna — the energy of what is becoming.

And where these two sides overlap at the waist? That's the Solitude of the Jungle — the quiet, inevitable middle ground where nature slowly, beautifully, reclaims the world.

See It on Instagram

Watch the process come alive — from desktop sketches to the final design:

▶ Watch the Reel on Instagram