21/09/2025

ON SUNDAY September 21, 2025 theSunday Special II Drawing through the darkness BY HANNEF ESQUANDER

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Inner conflicts can be deeply uncomfortable, but they are essential to personal growth.”

Chong

W HO would have thought art could be the saviour, the hero that we have always been waiting for. But more than a knight in shining armour, art saves those who have been looking for an escape or the key to freedom from what is holding them hostage or a burden that they have been carrying on their back for far too long. Art offers release for those who suffer from mental health issues. It is not the cure per se, but art has been proven to be effective as a holding space and medium that helps one slow down and take a breather, because that is exactly what they need. Alexdrina Chong found her own space in art to host her emotions. It is her own quiet place where she can have a conversa tion with herself without judgment. It enables her to express complex feelings that are often difficult to articulate. In many ways, art has become both a mirror and a companion for Chong. It does not necessarily fix what she is going through, but it gives form to what is otherwise invisible. “The act of making, whether it’s draw ing, writing or shaping clay, slows me down and helps me listen inwardly. That’s where healing begins. I think, not in the need to be okay, but in the willing ness to stay with what’s uncomfortable long enough to understand it,” Chong explained. Originally from Malacca, Chong pur sued her studies in visual design in the United States, where she later received a scholarship to complete her master’s degree. Her postgraduate research fo cused on media literacy, driven by a

deep interest in the relationship between media, identity and society, especially in the context of the digital age and the rise of social media. “I’ve been drawn to art for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would spend hours drawing comics and illustrating the stories that played out in my imagination. But growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, art, especially comic drawing, wasn’t seen as a serious or rewarding academic path, especially for a student who was doing well academically. The school system then was deeply focused on producing straight-A students, with little space to nurture creative thinking or acknowledge the broader role of the arts in society. So, like many others, I was discouraged from perceiving art as a serious direction in life,” recalled Chong. 100 pages of solitude The most recognisable art pieces created by Chong feature a little red-haired girl character that seems to have found a home in many people’s hearts. It began with a series of illustrated entries from her pandemic journals in 2021. It eventu ally became a book titled 100 Pages of Solitude. That body of work was not at all planned as a career-defining project. Chong was simply drawing to process and hold the complex emotions she could not make sense of during that collective pause. “The illustrations touched on themes like overthinking, anxiety and depression and somehow, they resonated. I began receiving messages from people who shared how the work helped them make sense of their own emotional struggles.

Work in progress at the studio