admin
22 December 2023
I APPROACHED CHI-KIT ABOUT AN INTERVIEW WITH THE INTENTION OF PROMOTING HIS THESIS SHOW. AND WE DO. BUT CHI-KIT IS KEEPING THE WORK A SECRET FROM THE PUBLIC. HE WANTS TO UNVEIL IT ALL AT ONCE. I GOT TO SEE IT, AND I WAS FLOORED. REAL AMAZING STUFF. IT DOES EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTS IT TO DO, WHICH IS THE SIGN OF AN INTELLIGENT ARTIST. CHI-KIT IS MOST DEFINITELY INTELLIGENT, AND HUMBLE. AND HE WAS WILLING TO SHARE A BIT OF HIS INTELLIGENCE WITH TASTES LIKE CHICKEN.
ENJOY,
VINNIE
vinnie: You have two statements you want to make. Do you want to make those first?
Chi-Kit: Yeah. Firstly, people look at art and they're really critical. They have an emotionless way of looking at art. But I don't think that's right. I think they should start with an appreciation and a positive point of view. It won't help anybody if you're being negative and sarcastic. I mean, it's really hard (doing this) already. Why make it even harder?
v: Yeah.
C: And second: people should do whatever they like. That's why it’s called Fine Arts. You do what you care about. So you shouldn't judge what people do, based on your own tastes or your own perceptions. For example, it's okay to be avant garde. That's fine. But you can't attack people who choose to do something more traditional or conventional. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just what kind of person they are.
v: So when you sit down and work, you just do it because you love to do the work?
C: Yeah. And being an artist is really a learning experience. Like growing older. As you age, you get more experience. I learn a little bit more with each piece. Not like learning a new technique, but understanding myself more.
v: So do you want to talk about your thesis work at all?
C: Yeah. The show is coming up, and the work is basically related to the statement I made about art being a learning experience. It’s also about recording a moment. I try to record the beauty of certain moments, and I want to transcend them faithfully onto a piece of paper. I'm showing sincerity, and I try to be faithful to my emotions; be honest with them. When I make these pieces I have formal design concerns, because if you make something that's unreadable, you block people from understanding.
v: Right. You're very sensitive to design. Being a designer, I can see you're very aware of space and color--
C: --and the balance, and the frame of reference. That's my concern. I want people to be able to approach my work easily, you know? So they can get what I have to offer them.
v: So, how did you come to this point: How did you start making things look atmospheric and moody? Did you consciously decide it, or were you just working one day and it clicked?
C: Actually, both. Every decision I make is a conscious decision. In representational art, every determination we have is conscious. It's absolutely conscious, and absolutely under control. But it also has a lot to do with me still learning, too-- about the canvas, and the light, and why the paint in this spot has to be thicker than in another. Those kind of things.
v: Since these are so emotional and such a part of your learning process, would you be willing to part with them if someone wanted to buy them?
C: I wasn't going to sell them. I was just going to trade with friends. But if someone wants to buy them, I'll take the check. (laughs)
v: Since this is a great deal of experimentation and exploration for you, did you look at any art or artists to inspire this?
C: Yeah. I look at Vilhelm Hammershoi’s work all the time. He's phenomenal. Just phenomenal. He died in 1919 or something. At that point, Dada emerged, and he was representational art. He got written out from the history books, because people overlooked him for Dada.
v: When did you start making images?
C: When I was a kid, I did sketches from my head. Then I started doing comics for a magazine back home when I was 14. In high school, I was a biology major, and my senior year, I didn't really go. I skipped lots of classes and went to the movies or a coffee shop. When my parents discovered this, they didn't get mad. They just asked me to get a job. So I got one at a newspaper, where I did comics for them. I also had to get lots of papers and coffee and shit like that, but I had to draw comics, too. I didn't work with oil paints until I came here. And when I did it, it was a really weird experience. A good one. So I just kept doing oils. I was going to be an illustration major and work for Disney or some shit, but I switched to a Fine Arts major because I'm more suited for that. I have to work by myself.
v: I gotta talk to you more about this comic work, because I didn't even know you did this. Have you ever tried to incorporate that into your fine art work?
C: Yeah. In my printmaking.
v: I was gonna ask you about that, too.
C: In my printmaking critique at school, everyone was going after me. They were all so caught up in an avant garde format. You know how ironic it is, that in traditional art, you have a format to follow. But with avant garde, there's even more format! (laughter) They were like "You can't do this, man! You can't do that!" I was so disappointed. I kept asking why they tried to be so intellectual. That's another thing: Artists are intellectuals, but they're different from other intellectuals, because they have their visions. You do a layout and you have a vision of how things should look. And I have a vision to paint fuzzy things. Artists, they don't have to talk about the work itself. They don't have to say anything. They can just let the work talk.
v: Yeah. There are people that just don't enjoy work. It has to do something more for them. Something else.
C: Exactly! And some people, their work just can't tell you a thing. That's why they have to verbalize it for people. I know some artists who never do that. They show what kind of person they are through their work.
v: Do you think there are some kids whose work suffers because they're trying to over-intellectualize it?
C: Yeah. That's a major problem for people. I’d like to show them that it's okay to get back to doing a different kind of work.
v: Do you think maybe they’re just afraid people aren't going to get it, and that's why they do it?
C: No. It 's just that they have their own idea. They think art should always break through the previous thing. They get caught up in the avant garde format. They always have to fuck with the previous art, or be sarcastic, or be an asshole. And that work, most of the time, lacks sincerity or soul.
v: Don't you think that train of thought is funny, though, because I always think of Picasso as somebody who made everyone stop and look at art differently, like these kids are trying to do. But Picasso was taking all these things in art that had been done, and showing people how great it was!
C: Yeah. And Picasso was an exceptional case. He was a fucking genius. That's why he moved the world. He could do super-representational work when he was 12. He was gifted with the base skills. You can't do something abstract based on nothing. You have to have that base. Kids now are trying to find shortcuts, not have a learning experience. Like, they don't learn how to play classical styles of guitar. They just do the punk rock thing.
v: You have to know how to do something right before you can shake things up a bit.
C: Like Jimmy Page. He does rock and roll, but he learned the blues first because that's where rock and roll came from. He knows the guitar. Very few people have the humility and the balls to really explore and learn their foundations.
v: So what are you listening to when you work on your stuff?
C: I listen to lots of John Coltrane. Some Led Zeppelin. Stuff you can chew on. If my work can have that John Coltrane kind of emotion, then my art is successful. Here's another thing, and I want you to write this down. I want to send this to my sponsor. I was nobody before, back home. But my sponsor, Mr. Edward O' Neill, gave me money to come here. He supported me financially, and I want to thank him. If he didn't help me, I would be one of those guys with a cell phone on the street corner, selling insurance. (laughing)
v: (laughing) How did he find you?
C: He taught English in Hong King. He was a teacher of my brother’s. This guy always takes care of kids. He supports them to go to a foreign country and study.
v: That's really cool.
C: Yeah, he's really cool. He's a saint. He always travels, and helps poor people.
v: Does he know your work?
C: Yeah. He's seen my work. What I have now is totally because of him, and I really appreciate it. He's really important to me, because he saved me. Otherwise, I'd be that insurance guy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO OBTAIN THE WORK OF CHI-KIT KWONG, CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY AT CMKWONG@MSN.COM
ENJOY,
VINNIE
vinnie: You have two statements you want to make. Do you want to make those first?
Chi-Kit: Yeah. Firstly, people look at art and they're really critical. They have an emotionless way of looking at art. But I don't think that's right. I think they should start with an appreciation and a positive point of view. It won't help anybody if you're being negative and sarcastic. I mean, it's really hard (doing this) already. Why make it even harder?
v: Yeah.
C: And second: people should do whatever they like. That's why it’s called Fine Arts. You do what you care about. So you shouldn't judge what people do, based on your own tastes or your own perceptions. For example, it's okay to be avant garde. That's fine. But you can't attack people who choose to do something more traditional or conventional. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just what kind of person they are.
v: So when you sit down and work, you just do it because you love to do the work?
C: Yeah. And being an artist is really a learning experience. Like growing older. As you age, you get more experience. I learn a little bit more with each piece. Not like learning a new technique, but understanding myself more.
v: So do you want to talk about your thesis work at all?
C: Yeah. The show is coming up, and the work is basically related to the statement I made about art being a learning experience. It’s also about recording a moment. I try to record the beauty of certain moments, and I want to transcend them faithfully onto a piece of paper. I'm showing sincerity, and I try to be faithful to my emotions; be honest with them. When I make these pieces I have formal design concerns, because if you make something that's unreadable, you block people from understanding.
v: Right. You're very sensitive to design. Being a designer, I can see you're very aware of space and color--
C: --and the balance, and the frame of reference. That's my concern. I want people to be able to approach my work easily, you know? So they can get what I have to offer them.
v: So, how did you come to this point: How did you start making things look atmospheric and moody? Did you consciously decide it, or were you just working one day and it clicked?
C: Actually, both. Every decision I make is a conscious decision. In representational art, every determination we have is conscious. It's absolutely conscious, and absolutely under control. But it also has a lot to do with me still learning, too-- about the canvas, and the light, and why the paint in this spot has to be thicker than in another. Those kind of things.
v: Since these are so emotional and such a part of your learning process, would you be willing to part with them if someone wanted to buy them?
C: I wasn't going to sell them. I was just going to trade with friends. But if someone wants to buy them, I'll take the check. (laughs)
v: Since this is a great deal of experimentation and exploration for you, did you look at any art or artists to inspire this?
C: Yeah. I look at Vilhelm Hammershoi’s work all the time. He's phenomenal. Just phenomenal. He died in 1919 or something. At that point, Dada emerged, and he was representational art. He got written out from the history books, because people overlooked him for Dada.
v: When did you start making images?
C: When I was a kid, I did sketches from my head. Then I started doing comics for a magazine back home when I was 14. In high school, I was a biology major, and my senior year, I didn't really go. I skipped lots of classes and went to the movies or a coffee shop. When my parents discovered this, they didn't get mad. They just asked me to get a job. So I got one at a newspaper, where I did comics for them. I also had to get lots of papers and coffee and shit like that, but I had to draw comics, too. I didn't work with oil paints until I came here. And when I did it, it was a really weird experience. A good one. So I just kept doing oils. I was going to be an illustration major and work for Disney or some shit, but I switched to a Fine Arts major because I'm more suited for that. I have to work by myself.
v: I gotta talk to you more about this comic work, because I didn't even know you did this. Have you ever tried to incorporate that into your fine art work?
C: Yeah. In my printmaking.
v: I was gonna ask you about that, too.
C: In my printmaking critique at school, everyone was going after me. They were all so caught up in an avant garde format. You know how ironic it is, that in traditional art, you have a format to follow. But with avant garde, there's even more format! (laughter) They were like "You can't do this, man! You can't do that!" I was so disappointed. I kept asking why they tried to be so intellectual. That's another thing: Artists are intellectuals, but they're different from other intellectuals, because they have their visions. You do a layout and you have a vision of how things should look. And I have a vision to paint fuzzy things. Artists, they don't have to talk about the work itself. They don't have to say anything. They can just let the work talk.
v: Yeah. There are people that just don't enjoy work. It has to do something more for them. Something else.
C: Exactly! And some people, their work just can't tell you a thing. That's why they have to verbalize it for people. I know some artists who never do that. They show what kind of person they are through their work.
v: Do you think there are some kids whose work suffers because they're trying to over-intellectualize it?
C: Yeah. That's a major problem for people. I’d like to show them that it's okay to get back to doing a different kind of work.
v: Do you think maybe they’re just afraid people aren't going to get it, and that's why they do it?
C: No. It 's just that they have their own idea. They think art should always break through the previous thing. They get caught up in the avant garde format. They always have to fuck with the previous art, or be sarcastic, or be an asshole. And that work, most of the time, lacks sincerity or soul.
v: Don't you think that train of thought is funny, though, because I always think of Picasso as somebody who made everyone stop and look at art differently, like these kids are trying to do. But Picasso was taking all these things in art that had been done, and showing people how great it was!
C: Yeah. And Picasso was an exceptional case. He was a fucking genius. That's why he moved the world. He could do super-representational work when he was 12. He was gifted with the base skills. You can't do something abstract based on nothing. You have to have that base. Kids now are trying to find shortcuts, not have a learning experience. Like, they don't learn how to play classical styles of guitar. They just do the punk rock thing.
v: You have to know how to do something right before you can shake things up a bit.
C: Like Jimmy Page. He does rock and roll, but he learned the blues first because that's where rock and roll came from. He knows the guitar. Very few people have the humility and the balls to really explore and learn their foundations.
v: So what are you listening to when you work on your stuff?
C: I listen to lots of John Coltrane. Some Led Zeppelin. Stuff you can chew on. If my work can have that John Coltrane kind of emotion, then my art is successful. Here's another thing, and I want you to write this down. I want to send this to my sponsor. I was nobody before, back home. But my sponsor, Mr. Edward O' Neill, gave me money to come here. He supported me financially, and I want to thank him. If he didn't help me, I would be one of those guys with a cell phone on the street corner, selling insurance. (laughing)
v: (laughing) How did he find you?
C: He taught English in Hong King. He was a teacher of my brother’s. This guy always takes care of kids. He supports them to go to a foreign country and study.
v: That's really cool.
C: Yeah, he's really cool. He's a saint. He always travels, and helps poor people.
v: Does he know your work?
C: Yeah. He's seen my work. What I have now is totally because of him, and I really appreciate it. He's really important to me, because he saved me. Otherwise, I'd be that insurance guy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO OBTAIN THE WORK OF CHI-KIT KWONG, CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY AT CMKWONG@MSN.COM
artid
55
Old Image
4_7_untapped.swf
issue
vol 4 - issue 07 (mar 2002)
section
untapped