Like A Bewildering Summer Day, A Brighter Summer Day is derived from the Basic Housing Unit linocuts. Titled after the classic Taiwan movie A Brighter Summer Day, these characters feel like they are trapped in a world where tomorrow sometimes seems impossible.

First one is meant to suck! And self-portrait is the most difficult thing ever. I was trying to give a look that is for looking at people I guess. And the plan is to paint some more with different gazes, with the next one being looking at myself, which will be at a different angle.

This painting is about a stubborn group of people waiting outside a court house 3 days ahead of a “landmark RIP case” hearing, bearing witness to the absurdity of our times.

This painting is inspired by Janet Fish’s glassware paintings printed in a book about colour in contemporary painting. I rubbed the little liqueur bottles, and Dionysus appeared from one of them, granting me three wishes to get three more bottles of my choosing. I asked our alcohol loving guest to choose for me and gathered enough bottles to arrange an interesting setup for a still life.

The painting is a blow-up and reinterpretation of a tiny laminated photo about the size of a credit card. It is never the artist’s intention to copy and paint a pretty picture, but by going into details, Wai-Yi was able to truly look at the photo and imagine being in the space where it was taken (grandparent’s flat), her extended family and their belongings in that space, and her parents from 27 years ago, when she was less than 1 year old and have zero memory of any of that. By delving into the almost indiscernible details, what was presented to the artist’s observation was not only the differences in the appearance of her family members’ and grandparents’ homes, but also a moment to reflect on her family history and the relationships among family members. With a playful twist on the “photorealistic” approach, not only the nixie-number-like date on early digital photos but also the dust and fibres that went under the lamination were included, extending beyond the borders

A painting derived from one of the lino cuts I made last year, and the lino came out of nowhere. After reading some news article about the “basic housing units” in Hong Kong, which is a flat around the same size as the room I had when I was studying in Farnham, two pictures surfaced to my mind. I didn’t have any reference other than the flowers for the lino (had a nice look at the flowers of death) since forever, more than half of the times I didn’t have or look at reference, but now is now before was before. I just thought the linos might look good if they are colourful and leaving it rough would make such a scene with flowers of death more playful.

Is memory the presence of the absence? One of the most enjoyable drawings for my as a child was “imaginary game mazes”, which might have been invented by my classmates. Now not only I can no longer draw like that, but also I found myself not creative as I was used to be…Life took some interesting turns and I can’t draw and doodle the way I used to…but I think I should try my best to preserve these memories that I treasure, even if this representation is not 100% authentic…

The painting LIMBO is about histories and memories in different time and space, that consolidate into one housing block. This references the public housing blocks in Hong Kong called the twin towers. While it has been a movie location, a photography hotspot, and even received a visit from Queen Elizabeth… it remains just another ordinary home for everyday life dwellers. Although the work’s title might suggest some seriousness, it can be viewed playfully as the painting is stretched on an irregular canvas, with distorted perspectives. During the process of painting, Wai Yi constantly found it disorientating and sometimes couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. The completed painting changes depending on what angle you view it from.

Inspired by Star Wars, Three Body Problem and the other sci-fi classics, this etching depicts a space colony on planet β1 Capricorni Ab2a in E.S.6 (E.S. for exo saigei). The system has five stars in total but they are in smaller groups of 3 and 2. The planet is smaller than its moon but much denser and very strong magnetic field. Because of this core of the planet, transports and vehicles easily rely on magnetic levitation, making them seem like flying cars and trains. Also due to the multiple suns and the big moon, the colony can harness the solar and tidal energy for electricity. There is no fossil fuels in everyday life because almost all lives were brought here except the indigenous plants and micro-organisms.

The technical aspect: this zinc plate has gone through around 11 stages in the making. 1. Hard ground etching; 2. Soft ground etching; 3. sugar lifting + box aquatint fine rosin + spit bite (with real spit!); 4-9. box aquatint in 6 parts (at least); 10. hand shaken aquatint rosin + spit bite 11. dry point burnishing touch ups

Landing vertically uphill from low to mid levels in Central, Hong Kong Island, Peel Street was named after British PM Sir Robert Peel. It once housed two prominent printing houses, which were recommended by the government when Oxford University reached out for Chinese print types.

The Hong Kong Type was once the face of Chinese print types for letterpress, appearing in some of the oldest Chinese Bibles and travelling to Australia, Britain, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and the USA✈️

The font type mould was unearthed from the Netherlands archive and re-cast in Hong Kong recently.

Seemingly peaceful up here but in a few blocks down and to the side, you’d find the Soho in Hong Kong, bar brawls, world’s longest escalator system and street market on a slope etc.

Landing vertically uphill from low to mid levels in Central, Hong Kong Island, Peel Street was named after British PM Sir Robert Peel. It once housed two prominent printing houses, which were recommended by the government when Oxford University reached out for Chinese print types.

The Hong Kong Type was once the face of Chinese print types for letterpress, appearing in some of the oldest Chinese Bibles and travelling to Australia, Britain, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and the USA✈️

The font type mould was unearthed from the Netherlands archive and re-cast in Hong Kong recently.

Seemingly peaceful up here but in a few blocks down and to the side, you’d find the Soho in Hong Kong, bar brawls, world’s longest escalator system and street market on a slope etc.

Landing vertically uphill from low to mid levels in Central, Hong Kong Island, Peel Street was name after British PM Sir Robert Peel. It once housed two prominent printing houses, which were recommended by the government when Oxford University reached out for Chinese print types.

The Hong Kong Type was once the face of Chinese print types for letterpress, appearing in some of the oldest Chinese Bibles and travelling to Australia, Britain, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore and the USA✈️

The font type mould was unearthed from the Netherlands archive and re-cast in Hong Kong recently.

Seemingly peaceful up here but in a few blocks down and to the side, you’d find the Soho in Hong Kong, bar brawls, world’s longest escalator system and street market on a slope etc.

After reading some news article about the “basic housing units” in Hong Kong, which is a flat around the same size as the room I had when I was studying in Farnham, two pictures came across my mind. Basic Housing Unit 1 & 2 depict imaginary little people in the ridiculously crammed and sometimes even unsafe subdivided flats in HK, accompanied by flowers of death.

After reading some news article about the “basic housing units” in Hong Kong, which is a flat around the same size as the room I had when I was studying in Farnham, two pictures came across my mind. Basic Housing Unit 1 & 2 depict imaginary little people in the ridiculously crammed and sometimes even unsafe subdivided flats in HK, accompanied by flowers of death.

This etching was developed from a frustrating dream where I lived in a cable car from Ocean Park, the iconic theme park in Hong Kong, then I was somehow back to my secondary school and found that it had an extension with the interiors looking like a hotel and finally got lost in its many labyrinthine rooms.