Haywired Tikar is a light installation that contrasts the innocence of childhood with the technological entanglement of adulthood.

The work begins with the memory of the tikar used in Malaysian primary schools, where children once sat together on woven mats in front of the classroom. Its familiar pattern becomes the visual starting point, recalling a simpler, more tactile moment of growing up.

This memory is then transformed into a harsh digital landscape. Light tubes recreate the woven motif of the tikar, while a human-like figure stands tangled in cables, pulled and bound by the wires around it. Behind the figure, a blinding screen of light suggests the overwhelming presence of technology, social media, and the systems we now depend on.

Haywired Tikar reflects on how we have moved from communal childhood spaces into adulthood shaped by constant connection. What once held us together as a simple woven mat becomes a network of wires — beautiful, powerful, but also consuming.