2021 MAN'S RED FLOWER

MAN'S RED FLOWER

Dec 4 - 12, 2021

17/F H Queens
80 Queens Road Central, Hong Kong

Man’s Red Flower is a series of works where Li reclaims past memories through the lens of her inner child. Li continues her exploration on the cost of innocence in the pursuit for power within her individual context. Rooted in her artistic process and spiritual practice, she presents her first exhibition of abstract figurative paintings of memories— a state of mind, feeling or thought—told anew.

Li’s painting process mirrors how innocence grows and thrives, then submerges and becomes lost under the curiosity for power. Through this turbulent journey, each painting completes and rests on the feeling of hope, where Li “retrieves innocence” by means of being more creative, navigating through the memory under a new lens like a child who sees for the first time. The artist’s interests are in the objects a child might physically collect and recollect when developing new experiences. In this series, flowers and shells became the motifs that govern Li’s style. These immersive paintings are visual narratives born through her imagination and dreams.

MONKEY

Give me the power of man’s red flower, so I can be like you!

MAN CUB

(innocently)

But I don’t know how to make fire?

Disney & Reitherman. The Jungle Book 1976. US: Walt Disney Productions

Man’s Red Flower is the name for fire, symbolized as power. Li draws inspiration and meaning from the scene in The Jungle Book and applies it metaphorically into her series, highlighting her belief that innocence is gold, yet the most difficult to uphold. In truth, innocence can never truly be retrieved…