Thumbprint Portrait of Founding Father of Malaysia

What's in a fingerprint? Fingerprints and footprints have long maintained a visceral power to connect us — on a human level — to our inherent identity.

Human fingerprints are detailed, unique, difficult to alter and durable over the life of an individual, making them suitable as lifelong markers of human identity.

In a world where fingerprints are increasingly used for identification, the thumbprint as used by Vivian in her work has a much greater impact now as a symbol of oneself and identity.

The diminutive 28-year-old explains: "A thumbprint is the most important identity of a person and is unique to each person."

Using her unique identity marker to create these portraits, she adds, is symbolic of the multicultural identity that's distinctly Malaysian.