This final series stands apart from the previous three as they portray the perspective of someone indoors. Algae Blue resembles a wide and bare kitchen, while Small Dances of Voices employs an actual window blind rather than a canvas, in which a bright hallway and doorway are painted. The vast surfaces of wood and thick, opaque concrete and paint allude to a real physical interior space, rather than the abstract and dreamlike ones inside depicted in the previous series, which collapse the outside and inside. Nonetheless, Goh incorporates something new in these works, setting them apart from her past expressions of indoor structures made of cement and wood: a cold, deep blue colour. Painted on floors and walls, the blue adds enigma and depth to the works, weighing them with new meaning. It is as if the blue of the sea imprinted in Goh’s psyche spilled over to this physical space–which one can assume is her place of residence in Melbourne–marking it with the intimate implications of home Goh has come to attach to the sea.
Yet through its solid, interior perspective, Looking Through the Window alludes not only to a metaphorical, but also a concrete sense of home. Goh stresses the importance of having a place to breathe and pause, especially after her sojourns into unfamiliar places and things–reflecting how resting the body in a physical space also parallels resting one’s thoughts. As she pursues her graduate studies abroad, Goh inevitably feels the pressure to constantly produce, to learn and absorb new ideas and incorporate them into her work. Yet, this habitat reminds her that rest is just as crucial, if not essential to her growth.
It is revealing that the works evoking home resemble her past works the most, as if she were establishing a sense of continuity and identity to return to in her art. They are testament to how just as her notions of home evolve and expand from particular centres–her memories, Johor Bahru, Singapore–so does her artistic practice remain grounded, even as she allows it to deepen with the layers and colours of every new object, place and experience that enamors her.