Basel, June 13 – 22, 2025, https://www.pf25.org/
I do not remember any more how I met Chan, but it was definitely during the time when he still lived and worked in Hong Kong. It was likely at some local art fair or opening. I also remember that since that time I had him connected with Chinese ink painting and a certain love for monsters or the rather dark side of the world. Fast forward a decade or more. Chan is now based in Finland, joining the ever increasing Hongkonger diaspora around the globe. In Basel in Switzerland, by chance, I ran into his solo show in a cute ancient half-timbered house a backyard of a block in the old city centre apartment during the Art Basel art fair week.
Even though Chan insisted that his paintings have nothing to do with Chinese ink painting, I would still say that a certain connection is unavoidable. The motives remind me of the Classic of Mountain and Seas (山海经) and the technique, which is not exactly ink painting but rather acrylic painting on a white background, still echoes the ink painting approach in its spontaneity of expression where the image is first completed in the “mind” and then “expressed” onto the canvas. (Chan shared that he does not do preparatory drawings for his paintings but works his visions directly onto the canvas within a short time frame.)
Painting of different sizes were hung along the walls, from large to small, making sure there is something for each of the potential customers that visited the space during the busy art fair week.
What made the space special was a large three-part canvas print (thee banners) hugging the visitors from above covering the ceiling of the room. This itself was an enlarged copy of an original work on paper that was displayed facing upwards in a vitrine at the centre of the room. Ultimately, this meant that all walls and ceiling were covered with Chan’s painting, leaving only the floor empty. This created a cave-like feeling, that was quite appropriate to the sleep/dream theme referenced in the title of the show. Something that surrounds you.
A little mirror table (mirroring the banner-covered ceiling), a pack of cigarettes (with tobacco removed and back ink scribbles on their round bodies) and a viewing sofa completed the setup of the room.
The mirror as a metaphor for a kind of shadow transformation of our own selves, the cigarette smoke as a companion to incense smoke, something that is transformed from solid state into air and thus communicates with the otherly world and the sofa referencing psychoanalysis, could of course all be interpreted as a part and parcel of this dreamy nightmare setup.
The content of the images remained a bit mysterious to me. As already mentioned, it seemed to be quite full of monsters, skeletons and similar rather unpleasant creatures. The exhibition text mentioned Ingmar Bergman’s movie The Hour of the Wolf (1968) and some of the creatures with whitish and skull-like faces seemed to be taken from there. Other creatures where looked more like something one would encounter in a Taoist temple.
Overall definitely something worth seeing and spending some time with. The fact, that it was not entirely clear what the paintings showed, made it more interesting for me. A longer and closer inspection would probably lead to further discoveries and conclusions. Hope Chan can sleep better now that he brought his nightmares to paper.
