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Lee Kit currently has a show at the Minsheng Art Museum, \u201cEvery Breath You Take\u201d (See Ran Dian\u2019s review of the show by Wang Kaimei).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel Szehin Ho<\/strong>: So you did this show with your teacher Lui Chun Kwong. How did he inspire you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lee Kit<\/strong>: I wouldn\u2019t say inspire, but I was influenced a little bit by him \u2014 because I still think I am a painter, even though no one calls me a painter. He is a painter, obviously. Being a painter is more about daily practice. It\u2019s like not only working in front of the painting but in every detail of daily life. In this perspective, in this sense, I am kind of influenced by him. My practice can\u2019t be read as some kind of political statement but more like an individual. I can\u2019t change the world or change the society, but I can manage my life\u2026. I can change my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My personality is such that I don\u2019t like statements. I don\u2019t like any propaganda. I go on the street but I don\u2019t want to call myself an artist. I just want to call myself a citizen, to go to a demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH<\/strong>: If you are in Europe or North America and someone asks you, \u201cOh, so where are you from?\u201d What do you say? Would you say you\u2019re Chinese?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: If I need to \u2014 talk about my nationality \u2014 definitely it is Hong Kong. I won\u2019t write down China. It is strange. I am Chinese, of course; I don\u2019t hate China. But I hate the recent China that is invented by the recent government. I would say they invented recent China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean it is impossible to imagine. China is a strange invention now. In contemporary China, without the government it would be totally chaotic. Even worse than 50 years ago. First, it\u2019s too large. If suddenly China opened up, it would be like a really huge zoo suddenly opening all its doors with all the animals running out. People usually imagine, \u201cOkay, this zoo could open the doors and people can go in to change it,\u201d but actually the animals in the zoo are not tame \u2014 they are all still wild animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: When you were living with your work, during the whole period, did that change the way you saw your work? Were you always thinking about it or did it just become part of the furniture, something that you didn\u2019t think about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: From the beginning it became my home. I realized that actually [the objects in my home] create an environment for me to live in. When I am in my studio, I\u2019m not always working. Sometimes I sit there looking at the sunshine. And then I realize, \u201cOh okay, my tablecloth is quite beautiful.\u201d Not the object itself, because it\u2019s not only one tablecloth. Everything seems like my work, even the glass on my table. I always want to put that<\/em> particular glass in that <\/em>position. Yeah, no one\u2019s going to move it. If you move it, I will put it back. I just want that glass in that position on that table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: You\u2019re just very particular about how it looks\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: I\u2019m a control freak. In this way I create an environment or atmosphere for myself. It is parallel to my recent practice. I set up an atmosphere, more than show a painting or a setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH<\/strong>: And what\u2019s this cream business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: Cream. Another strange thing, I\u2019ve liked Nivea, the hand cream, for a very, very long time. What is strange is I have a lot of associations with these kinds of products. It\u2019s not only something which happened in the past few years; it happened when I was young, like if I missed this guy in my mind. Like for instance when you miss Daniel, his name will repeat in your mind, right? Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. But if I miss Daniel, his image is in my mind but the name that appears is Nivea or Johnson\u2019s. I associate it \u2014 for example, if I miss Mary, the name in my mind is not Mary, it\u2019s Nivea, but actually, this Mary, she is not my ex-girlfriend, she is not any important female to me, just maybe somebody who passed by. And I give her the name Nivea. And I keep thinking about this girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: And then you see a person walking and you attach that person to the nostalgia feeling or the missing feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: Actually, the missing feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: More of a missing feeling. And then you give a name to it like a brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: I associate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: Is there any rhyme or reason to why you use these beauty care products?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s because when I am naked in the bathroom, I see mostly these kinds of products. And also I enjoy washing my hair, the smell, not thinking about things, just enjoying the thoughts in my mind and then when you open your eyes, all you see is the shampoo or the hand cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RC<\/strong>: That\u2019s an interesting kind of process. From missing something that\u2019s very familiar to attaching it to something that\u2019s unfamiliar and then going back to something that\u2019s familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DSH<\/strong>: What other products do you have that obsession with? Is it usually products? Is it a feeling? Is it an experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n LK<\/strong>: Maybe feeling. Because there is something I don\u2019t understand, so I start to think about it. Missing. Why do you miss somebody? Missing. It\u2019s something that you really don\u2019t know how to describe, and you can\u2019t avoid it, can\u2019t stop it. Of course, I don\u2019t want to take it too poetically, because it is already very poetic or very romantic. So the best way is if I present it not as a concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (transcribed by Natalie Kaplan) <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Daniel Szehin Ho \u4f55\u601d\u884d and Rebecca Catc … Continue reading