WONG LIP CHIN

In his upcoming solo exhibition at Yeo Workshop, the artist presents a new body of paintings that continue to feature his manga-like characters—Lilou, Ooomoo and Gemunggal. He has been developing these alter egos over the years, as they appear recurrently in his paintings, such that they have become recognisable leitmotifs that encapsulate a deep appreciation for the Literati movement in the Sinosphere imbued with Warholian spirit. Combining the sensibilities of Pop Art and classical Chinese ink painting, Wong’s paintings are suffused with iconography that might seem recognisable to many, borrowed from a variety of sources including Chinese calligraphy, totems, Japanese kyōga (comic pictures; 狂画 kuáng huà), film and design. Such icons and motifs range from the Buddhist hand mudras and seals to the Chinese celestial gods like Qianliyan, at times paired with Chinese idiomatic phrases and old adages that have been deliberately mistranslated in an accompanying English glossary. This exhibition, Mother Flippin’ Heavens! 翻天印 (fān tiān yìn) builds on the distinct pictorial language and vocabulary the artist has refined over the years. Where ancient classical texts such as Laozi’s Tao Te Ching and Tao Yuanming’s The Peach Blossom Spring underpin the exhibition, it considers the rhetoric of utopia as its central question. Visitors can scan the QR codes beside each painting to discover the various literature, imagery and music in association with the iconography embedded within his works. Using pastiche to subvert conventions, Wong invites visitors to take what they will from the manifold symbolisms they might gather from his paintings.