The Arts & Design Practice Research Exchange (ADPRex) is Southeast Asia’s first annual conference dedicated to practice research. ADPRex positions the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), University of the Arts Singapore as the leading centre of arts and design practice research in this region, where artists and thinkers come together to share ideas and insights at the apex of arts and design practice and innovative thinking.

PANEL 6: CURATING, ARCHIVING, AND PRACTICE :

Within Fear lives Wonder: Capturing the Contemporary Sublime with Cyanotype  -

Merissa Tee, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore 

Merissa’s presentation explores her artistic study of the contemporary experience of the Sublime, focusing on the relationship between fear and wonder in the act of capturing and synthesizing the captured. German Romantic depictions of the Sublime, once linked to awe and terror atop mountains, are now reframed within rapidly changing urban spaces and a technology-dependent world. In her creative practice, she capture everyday memories, store and retrieve them, and then embody them anew into tangible material and physical space through the Cyanotype process. 

The Cyanotype process plays a crucial role in giving life to the seemingly mundane, imbuing past documentation with new meaning and breathing life into the ephemeral. In this practice, the act of digitally capturing fleeting moments through photography merges with the grounding, tactile process of printmaking. This also parallels emotional processing in psychology, where confronting and reframing difficult emotions mirrors the reimagining of past moments, reflecting the fluidity of memory and perception. By layering fragments of meaning through cyanotype—shaped by light, time, and unpredictability—I embrace the limitations of the present human condition to create hopeful landscapes for the future. 

This exploration has developed into Hidden Threads of Blue, a collaborative project campaign with students and lecturers that visualizes the unseen stories of mental struggles and resilence of our community. Through the metaphorical language of blue, the project connects personal and communal narratives, inviting viewers to confront and find solace in the vast emotional landscapes we share. Within fear lives wonder—an essential motif revealed through the creative act of capturing and synthesizing the captured.