Porcelain Blues
Jeslyn Ooi
As echoed by the book The Body Keeps The Score, regardless of how deeply victims of sexual violence wish to bury the memory away, the memory is burned into the flesh; despite all of the mind's efforts, the body remembers. In this piece, I paint a story of the cycle of sexual trauma on the psyche, a violence too many female doctors experience.
On her body is a dragon wrapping around her arm, two tigers, and a python mating ball. The python mating ball— a phenomenon where a female python is tightly wrapped around by male pythons for mating, cruelly preventing its escape— symbolises the predatory violence experienced by women in vulnerable conditions.
Two tigers are drawn side by side. The left one is alert, trapped in fight-or-flight-while the right one sleeps, representing the hope for a peaceful rest, wishing to be able to put its guard down.
