Within or Above

Within of Above is in two parts. On the wall, Afiq has drawn a cactus in graphite, every spine and every bead of water rendered in painstaking detail. In the drawing, the cactus is being watered, but the source of the water is left unclear. On the floor beneath the drawing, a small garden of real, living cactuses grows in soil. A cactus survives drought but not drowning. Too little water and it shrivels, too much and it rots. The title asks where growth actually comes from: from within oneself, or from above, in the conditions and care that surround us. The drawing keeps the question open. The garden answers it slowly, in real time. The work belongs to Afiq's ongoing I Am Thorn series, in which the cactus stands as a personal symbol of the artist himself.