Certainly, spreading cheer became a regular fixture for the team. Another recent project, creating items that symbolised Christmas, benefited two orphanages in Subang Jaya. Joseph believes art can reach into people's hearts and minds, helping them to understand more about life. "People don't spend time with themselves; they are too preoccupied with other people's opinions and the distractions of everyday routines," he says, adding that people, especially youths, should see things from different perspectives and question everything. In a way, art and design aim to make people think and reflect on what life is really about. "Design speaks to the 'cool' people - it easily jazzes things up for them," Joseph explains.
Underlying religious and cultural messages in Art4Soul's designs are meant to subtly "When I was 12 years old, my friends and I used to toy around with words, and discovered that the word 'tuhan' was an anagram for 'hantu'," said Joseph. That idea stayed with him and turned into a project which was initially titled 'tuhantu' and explored the concept of having two sides to every story: black and white, yin and yang, good and evil.
Pictures, posters and photographs were exhibited, exploring symbols, icons and personalities that hold different meanings for everyone depending on our cultural backgrounds, experiences and beliefs. Art4Soul has embarked on projects of a spiritual nature for the past seven years, most notably the Man+God and Hungry Ghost projects. "People need to be observant and they need to spend more time in quiet reflection," says Joseph. "Out there, there is a blindspot that people are not aware of." Having co-discovered Art4Soul, come up with spectacular designs and spread the message of creativity to the world, perhaps Joseph has finally found the answers to his grandmother's questions.
