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Intimate Portrait
#NoPainNoFilterCami Hui
Red is a colour that often appears in the background or in the objects in your work. Any special symbolic meaning in that? Could it be replaced by any other colour?
There was period when many different imageries associated with the colour red appeared in my mind. In particular, that hue reminiscent of blood and red wine, hints at danger. I wanted to give an apparently peaceful picture an undercurrent of danger to create a sense of psychological conflict which hints at my internal feelings.
From where did you find inspiration for narrowing the perspective in the composition rather than including the entire environment in your paintings? Any element in the artwork that you particularly want to emphasise?
I enjoy constructing virtual private spaces in my work, such as an imagined room or house depicting a created scenario. The image often zeroes in on a certain corner of the room, and the scene is designed through the arrangement of spatial structures, objects, or symbols to express a particular emotion and atmosphere.
The elements I include in the artwork are purposeful and carry meaning. In real life, I have a keen interest in the decor and layout of spaces and in collecting exquisite items. I also enjoy imagining other people’s interests, tastes, and personalities through observing their belongings.
How is your curatorial experience influencing your future creations?
I see curation and arts administration as another facet of my artistic practice.
For me, painting is a presentation of personal aesthetics – it is an act of recording through colour and composition an image that has more private and internalised meaning and is closer to real live.
Curation requires thinking and discussion around a specific theme, interpreting others’ works from various perspectives, and hoping that the messages conveyed can connect with the audience to generate more dialogue. I enjoy continuously learning through communication with others; my curatorial experience allows me to gain a deeper understanding of different artists’ creative concepts and the characteristics and limitations of various artistic mediums. This enables me to approach exhibitions with a more open mindset. In my personal creations, it also prompts me to think more about issues of exhibition space, mode of expression and how to communicate with others.
You are in partnership with a gallery – how did it begin?
Local galleries and art institutions often scout for promising works at the annual graduation exhibitions of art schools, offering exhibition collaboration opportunities to recent graduates entering the art scene.
Shortly after the graduation exhibition I was a part of opened, I was invited to participate in two group shows organised by different galleries. Afterwards, I received a long-term collaboration proposal from one of them and that’s how the partnership started.
In the future, will you be creating more works which combine painting and installation – like that in the Veiled Red?
Veiled Red is a painting installation work from my university days. I was experimenting with extending the 2-D space of the artwork into the 3-D reality of the viewer, by combining the visual and the physical in the viewing process. The viewer enters a designated space for this painting by lifting a translucent red curtain, upon which they see another similar red curtain, half-lifted to reveal a pitch-black space inside, as if it was either an invitation for the viewer to venture further in, or merely a re-creation of the scene of the viewer stepping into the installation a moment ago.
I like this piece. I believe that the space in which a painting is viewed is also an aspect that the artist needs to consider, as the design of the venue and manner of display can influence how the artwork is interpreted. With painting installation, there are many possibilities to be explored and I hope to gradually develop them in the future.
