The reverse of LIMBO (2023)

Still life with the same two bottles and the polar bear clay model as in Got Some Bottles (2025) on a different background, which just happened to be a portrait of Sir David Attenborough adorned by some foliage in the most unnatural colours ever.

This painting had a working title “Take this Tracey Emin!” I struggle a lot with tidiness but then it can be art! The plastic box down there is my framing tool box. I was preparing my etching for the Pierson & Pierson Art Prize exhibition and you know it can be really stressful to frame your art. But in this case, the stress gave birth to more art!

This is my painting for Pride 2026, my first ever artwork that is solely about queerness. I am very lucky to have been raised by liberal parents who are a bit rebellious themselves. So I grew up intentionally defying all the stereotypes for girls and behaved a bit, in today’s word, like gender queer. However, back in the days in Hong Kong, despite having the biggest legendary pop culture icons, Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui, who were known for being androgynous and Leslie being gay but not received as much respect for being gay (could be bi, known for having a male partner) as being a household name of pop star and a brilliant actor, there was zero discussion about LGBT around me until high school (also grew up in a Christian school, considerably progressive, but still it’s an old school in Hong Kong). So I had my gay awakening before I knew it and I think it went down badly for me, because I was so confused at time but didn’t even know how to ask what’s wrong. And worse even, after knowing gay/queer the whole lore is about, my brain had shoved my queer experience away into a dark corner (maybe self-defense mechanism). And much later on I was forced to face my past, remembered everything and accept the reality that I had wasted a lot of time…

Based on a photo with great atmosphere but poor technical execution that I took of our Peruvian tour guide Edgar on our trip there. He is playing a flute and wearing a bag that his mum made him. According to Edgar, music runs in their family’s blood. Some of his relatives had a musical band. The chinchilla was added there because I have cropped out the original listener in the photo who didn’t fit into the composition and I need Edgar to have an audience.

From talking random almost like messing around stuff on a long bus drive, fearing we might be just like the previous group of Taiwanese tourists who didn’t understand him well, we started to learn more about each other, towards the end of the journey, he shared his heartfelt life story generously to some great details.

Coming from a village in the mountain near a small town Chinchero, Edgar and his family lived a simple life. When he was around 16 his mum suddenly passed away. He was not only saddened but also at a loss in life. The silver lining was that the burden of the breadwinner did not fall on his shoulder being the youngest among his brothers. Soon, they sent him to the big city Cusco with their relatives for more opportunities.

Speaking only Quechua as he grew up, he picked up English and Spanish while selling souvenir to tourists in Cusco. Interestingly he finds more similarity in English with Quechua than Spanish and hence consider himself more fluent in English (although in my opinion he is for both).

Later on he studied for 5 years to become a tour guide and after some years, he founded his own travel agency, Inti Peru Adventures. We were led by him and his nephew John, and for a while another nephew Cristian. And were greeted at the Cusco airport by a group of their families with alpaca crochets and coca tea.

I remember vividly, when we were at the Qorikancha in Cusco, in front of the Cosmology of the Inca golden plaque, Edgar explained how people are like moon, stars or sun and he always chooses to be like the sun. Being programmed to live in hectic urban settings like Hong Kong and London, under scrutiny of the judgemental, pretentious and fussy people all around, I was so moved by a lot of the interactions with the Peruvians (mainly Quechua people in the Andes), most of whom appear to be genuine and honest. And Edgar would be quite the manifest of the good image.

I wanted to paint him bigger with oil initially but then as I start this as a sketch/draft/colouring plan I thought I could submit this to some upcoming competition and there wouldn’t be enough time for the original plan. Well in results, acrylic worked just fine. The only downside is the paint still dried too quickly despite adding slow-dri medium constantly. I felt like more paint has been wasted compared to oil.

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 18 months 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.

Inside the commercial levels of the Bubble Building in β1 Capricorni Ab2a in E.S.6 (E.S. for exo saigei).

Inside the commercial levels of the Bubble Building in β1 Capricorni Ab2a in E.S.6 (E.S. for exo saigei).

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.

My first ever copper plate etching, created the plate while I was at the Royal Drawing School’s Drawing Intensive course in 2024. This is printed in a small piece of square scrape paper, might be Zerkall but I couldn’t remember.

The image was drawn from a photo I took during Covid-19 in Hong Kong. It depicts a lower segment of Peel Street.

Starting with a drawing outside Liverpool Street Station, an area around where old meets new the way similar to my hometown Hong Kong, the station is changed to “Time HQ”. In a book about future thinking, I found an interesting picture by Priamo della Quercia. It says it is one of Dante’s Infernos where soothsayers were punished with their heads turned backwards so they could only look at the past. When a soothsayer (like Rehoboam in Westworld) is arrested under a new law, people who fancied looking at their future protest against it and those who don’t counter-protest.

My emotional turmoil and self re-discovery during that period of time paved way to a new visual language: The Entanglement, which is these labyrinthine lines here. They are an analogy to life being a contradicting maze that lures people in but also forces them out. This drawing was one of the exploration on this style. It has been fed into ai engine to train a model that copies me, which I made use of in producing the body of work for my graduation project.

This large scale drawing is a site-specific work celebrating the 50th anniversary of South Hill Park Arts Centre.

As a Hongkonger, South Hill Park and I crossed paths when Sir James Matheson, the owner from 1852-1853, co-founded the Jardine, Matheson & Company Ltd with William Jardine. This company was heavily involved in opium trading with China from 1830-1840, leading to the opium wars, and in turn, the Foundation of Hong Kong on 26 January 1841. Without this there would be no “Hong Kong”. JM & Co has been rooted there since 1844 and the Jardine House remains a building of significance. The intricate drawing reimagines our entwined histories with its complex pattern of mark making.

The work was donated to the arts centre’s collection.

These two drawings are drawn by left hand and right hand completely respectively. Left brain control right side of your body and right brain vice versa. I was born left handed (I heard my parents that they are both born left handed, and my mother at least, she use left hand for everything except writing. But in fact my parents are the extremes of the left and right brains). But during an art class when I was very small, I was made right handed because of the laziness of the art teacher. Even my mom was surprised that I changed my handiness. So I became a bit of both handed and my brain is constantly fighting with itself, which indirectly caused a bunch of problems in my life. But now nothing matters anymore! Because I lost and found myself, and realised what love is. Anyway, at some point in life, we will understand everything in our own head, and nothing changes on the external world. But that’s just the beginning.

This was created using school work paper when I was a secondary school student at Pui Ching Middle School in Hong Kong. It depicts a imaginary city where I wanted to live, go to work and chill out.

The original is not archival and is already showing yellow spots around the corner. A limited edition of 25 archival prints are available here. They will last much longer.