My practice has developed from my interest in drawing and the basic debate around the nature and definition of drawing. From this foundation, I have created a process-based method of working which frequently seeks to break art down to its essential components and piece them back together rather than necessarily creating imagined images.
My work is often experimental and each piece is the result of a process of questioning and discovery. A conceptual approach may be taken at the start of a piece so that the end point is predetermined. I bring together materials, time, or particular movements or marks to make a piece. I frequently serially repeat actions or visual components to explore the creation of work whilst avoiding aesthetic decisions. Rather than creating regularity and perfection, this results in accident, misjudgement and discovery.
A frequently reoccuring theme is the exploration of the physicality of my body - my visual accuracy, my physical control, or my movement in particular situations, for example. Whether a piece of work consists of tiny marks requiring intense focus and almost mechanical control or explores the range and freedom of my movement, physicality and endurance are often central to my work.
I am increasingly interested in gestures, marks and the materiality of paint itself. I have recently started to explore intentionality, situation and the results of my painting action by manipulating paint marks after they have encountered a surface, for example, by lifting dropped paint from the original surface and placing it deliberately on another surface. I will be further exploring the possibilities of paint as a material and taking marks out of context in the future.
My overall approach is fundamentally methodical and often encourages a unity of extremes: freedom and control, accident and intention, method and spontaneity. My work continues to be strongly influenced by my upbringing in Hong Kong and my experience of traditional Chinese fine art practice and the importance of mark-making movement and phyiscal technique.
I am an American and British artist raised in Hong Kong and working and living in London. I am a Chartered Accountant and my broad background is reflected in my logical and process-based creative practice.