Chan began his “red” series during a 2018 residency in New York.
Experiencing a culture and history so remote from his own, he used the
residency as an opportunity to unlearn his artistic ideology and
creative trajectory; to explore states of flux and connection where
nobody knows where the changes will take us. As Chan explored the
relationships between painting, text, words, and identity, works have
emerged that fuse colour, culturally specific materials, found objects
from Hong Kong and the US, and intertwined texts in English and
Cantonese. His text – fragmented, layered, overlapping, printed,
painted, cut from acrylic sheet - range from his own poetry, lines from
the American Declaration of Independence (taken from the information
package given to new immigrants by the US government), to seminal
Cantonese song lyrics and graffiti.
What initially appear to be ‘straightforward’ paintings, on closer
inspection are translucent coloured silk layered over painted rice
paper, flags, over 3D acrylic Chinese characters taken apart into
individual phonemes, the silk itself printed with digital photographs
taken on the streets. With their unique materiality and cultural
significance, exercise books, silk, flags, rice paper, and joss paper
have become painting material for Chan, while the exhibition site itself
has become a key locale of painting.
In 2019, as Hong Kong was hit by unprecedented turmoil, as more and more
graffiti appeared in the streets, erased, re-written, painted over,
Chan’s work had already mirrored it and grew to incorporate it. In his
notes he writes, “The history of a place moves forwards slowly as it
sinks and floats during the process of writing and being erased. The
true face of history is formed during the resonance of struggle and
contradiction.” Chan could not help but contemplate his own and his
city’s linked identities. In questioning how he should act, and his
future during artistic creation, it has become increasingly important to
him to persevere in his way of life through daily art practice as a
means to engage with constantly changing environments.
