Biomorphic explorations with the Character. With each psychological change that takes place, his body morphs a little. Until there is the swollen head, no mouth, no limbs, no heart, no belly, large ears. But there is a string tying him down.
When the Balloon becomes a parent. How can it hold its child when it has no arms? How can it handle the cries with its big ears?The string has to be cut. And when it is cut, there is a tremendous release of pressure, and the Balloon can reform, become proportionate again, grow limbs.
I am exhausted from drawing and scanning and putting together saturday's presentation. Soon enough there will be a proper post on the Balloon.
This week I read A Child Called It by David Pelzer. And I talked to Felicia from Fostering about abuse investigation, child protection schemes, and most importantly for my project, the solutions and exits for parents who haven't been dealing too well with parenting.
From the interview, the good news is most physical abuse cases in Singapore start from the intention to find a discipline method that works; in other words, purely sadistic abuse is not common, although I will not hasten to comment on where the boundaries lie. Sexual abuse is a completely different arena altogether, slippery and altogether sinister, an inexcusable perversion.
The way I am approaching Abuse as a whole, I am closing an eye to the perversion that drives a good number of cases, and focusing instead on Abuse as a living force in itself that can be averted, like closing a window to put out the wind, or in this story, cutting the string that ties a balloon down. It is mild, it is non-confrontational. But is it right?
I still say that we shouldn't rush to condemn abusive parents as villains, because they could be victims too. But we cannot ignore the inexplicable part of it: the darkness of the soul, the demon-like glee that pushes a human being to hurt another human being, and enjoy it. This is where I must stop and think. Do we open up Pandora's Box?
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