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Intimate Portrait
Intimate PortraitBut Wing-ki
Ink on paper | 2021
Ink on paper | 2021
J: When did you become fascinated by drawing?
B: Reading and writing are not my forte, so I have been doodling since my first memory. Being a ball of energy, I like to draw standing up, lying or sitting on the floor, but never at the desk.
J: Why illustration?
B: I initially majored in 3D design. However, I missed the feeling of freedom afforded in drawing, and therefore changed my major to illustration. Illustration could be editorial in nature, with a predetermined theme or concept to be conveyed. I felt lost at first, as I was neither able to stick to a specific topic, nor have many self-imposed constraints. Later, under the guidance of my tutors, I learned to create by following my heart and with an open mind.
J: Is daily life your main source of inspiration and imagination?
B: Reflections, rather imaginings, on life might be a more accurate description. Inspiration can come to me sometimes in an explosive way with a lasting ripple effect, and at other times more transient and illusive. Almost like a reflex, the stimulations, feelings and encounters I have are transformed into drawings. I do sometimes notice elements I am unaware of about myself that gets to be revealed through my works. Art creations are like experiments to me – working under different moods and environments, the results could be different.
J: How do you capture those fleeting inspirations?
B: I usually keep a notebook to sketch my quick thoughts in words or drawings. I am trying to make drawing a daily habit, much like cultivating the habit of meditation, so that it would come naturally and effectively.
J: Do you consider art creation a conscious or unconscious process? Are the works reflections of the past or future?
B: I believe I create by intuition. When I think, I am aware of myself thinking, but there is a sense of detachment when I draw. My works are more like doodling than illustration. Past experiences and feelings may sometimes appear in the works, but not the future. Future is unknown by nature after all. What is considered as future before the creative process is not so anymore after the work is completed.
J: Your works are mostly in black and white. Do monochrome and colour have different meanings or significance for you?
B: Since my imagination and dreams are always in black and white, I work in monochrome to faithfully express what I see in my mind’s eyes. That said, I am not colour-blind physically (chuckles). I have experimented with adding colour to some of my works, but the result always looked odd to me.
J: Could you tell us more about “Blind Spot”, your upcoming exhibition at PMQ?
Ink on paper | 2021
B: Through this exhibition, I invite viewers to have a glimpse of my “blind spot”, which are things within me but that are unbeknownst to me. Drawing serves to bridge the two and bring the blind spots to the forefront. Besides inviting viewers to know more about me, I hope the exhibition experience will be a unique one for them too. Hence, I am considering ways for visitors to leave their thoughts and comments behind.
People often ask me what I am drawing, and I reply instead by asking them what they see. I can tell them the circumstances under which the works were created, but the meaning and content of the drawings are open to the viewer’s own interpretation. I find it interesting that many people try to explain incomprehensible things based on existing knowledge, as if they cannot tolerate any unknowns. The fact is, humans can only sense a limited spectrum of light or smell, meaning that what we perceive does not represent the entirety of objective reality. Therefore, I wish to highlight through my works the importance of accepting a world full of unknowns.
Ink on paper | 2021
J: How did your style of drawing take shape? Are your works a microcosmic representation of you?
B: This may have something to do with my general interests. For example, I love reading comics, especially Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue. I also admire the painter Egon Schiele – his characters appear to project human desires and emotions with a certain sense of fantasy and distortion. Influenced by him, my drawing style tends to be dark. As I was obsessed with sketching during secondary school, it seemed to have become muscle memory. Consequently, I focus on black and white, shading and proportion when I draw.
Actually, I do not quite understand myself, and I am not entirely sure what human beings are. Perplexed by our existence, social identities and labels, I will describe myself as being in chaos, which probably gets reflected in my works. I guess I am a bit rebellious too, as creatively I am driven to prove wrong people who think that my works do not bode well with the mass market.
J: Which piece or series of work has the most significance for you?
B: I would say it is the eponymous first piece of work in the “Blind Spot” exhibition. Some areas in the drawing are deliberately visible, while others are hidden from sight like a blind spot. The drawing seems to be bursting out of chaos. In fact, it was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, which probably reflected my feelings towards the virus and the unknown.
But Wing-ki
J: Any thoughts on your creative direction going forward?
B: I want to challenge myself with large-scale works. However, I am used to completing my work in one go. If the work is so too large that it requires multiple sessions to complete, I will find it exhausting and difficult to maintain artistic momentum between the sessions. As all my previous works are two-dimensional, I would also like to experiment with working on three-dimensional surfaces in the future.
