When it comes to local surrealistic art, the koi fish people in Ant Ngai’s creations are sure to leave a lasting impression on everyone. Her works are mostly inspired by Hong Kong scenery, personal experiences, urban life snippets, making it easy to connect with the audience and evoke emotions. Recently, Touch Gallery presents Ant Ngai‘s solo exhibition “If you see him, please tell me,” continuing to feature the iconic fish people as protagonists, leading the audience to navigate between reality and illusion.
Yi Yinglin’s early works were influenced by 18th and 19th-century paintings and dreams, focusing on human forms and covering themes of modern relationships. In this exhibition, the paintings are presented in a dualistic manner, with male fish-men and female fish-women appearing in different scenes, seemingly anticipating each other’s arrival, yet always missing each other. The artist uses “searching for someone” as a starting point, with the girl holding a missing person poster and a flashlight consciously searching for “him,” while “he” consistently appears in a contemplative posture, showcasing the emotional gap between the two.
In this series of works, the artist chose many familiar Hong Kong landscapes, including the Peak Road to the south of the Aberdeen Reservoir Road depicted in “Long Night Waiting” and “Sleeping Giant”. The female fisherman waits alone for the sunrise in the southern part of Hong Kong, while the male fisherman wanders drowsily in front of Mount Kellett.
In “Above the Sea” and “Below the Water”, the Ang Ping Plain and Sai Kung White Sand Bay are depicted, showing a silent conflict between “seeking” and “hiding”.
These scenes all come from the artist’s daily life, her painting studio is located opposite Pak Tin Estate in Shek Kip Mei. She uses mismatches of time, angle, and space to record the process of the fisherman searching for people in her own life scenes, accompanied by metaphorical imagination, attempting to find direction in this ever-changing universe.
“If you see him, please tell me” Ant Yinglin Solo Exhibition
Date: From now until September 4 (Closed on Mondays)
Time: 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Location: Touch Gallery, Room 202, 3/F, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Image source and learn more: Touch Gallery
