Foreword by Salina Christmas
Number 2 came three years after this journal made its debut at the HF Artsfest 2019. In those three years, we’ve had a pandemic, a global supply chain crisis and more recently in Europe, the war in Ukraine.
In Number 1, pollution plays a supporting role within a display of rustic projections, nostalgia and cultural anthropology of the seaside town of Lumut and Pangkor Island. In Number 2, however, this environmental calamity has a more profound co-starring role. It represents the consequences of the choices we make as humans.
Darkness and light, life and death, and pastel and pop interlock with one another. Life isn’t black-and-white but it is about duality, nonetheless. The theme of duality in After The Rain is further explored in Zarina’s depictions of her hometown flora and fauna. Agitated monkeys, confused baby bird, dead bird, frightened frogs and humans in play – or in contemplation – are set against the tapestry of nature.
After The Rain is an allegory of the present state of the world. Lumut and Pangkor Island are the metaphor for this cyclical bind of birth, life, death and rebirth. It’s not wrong, it’s just life. But as this journal alludes, winter always turn to spring. And the rain will stop at some point.
Number 2 is available to purchase as print magazine and Kindle ebook.
Salina Christmas is editor of Story of Books and Co-Founder of GLUE Studio.
“But as this journal alludes, winter always turn to spring. And the rain will stop at some point.”
After The Rain 