118 Landscape on Thumb 指上山水

LAI Tung-Yiu Stan  黎東耀
Landscape on Thumb  指上山水  (2019)
Ink on Paper  水墨紙本
110cm x 62cm

Artist Statement

LAI Tung-Yiu Stan, born in 1973 in Hong Kong, has had a diverse career in both architecture and ink painting. After dedicating two decades to the field of architecture, he embarked on a new artistic path at the age of 40, delving into the practice of ink painting. Throughout his artistic development, he has been mentored by the esteemed architect and painter, Raymond Fung.
He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Hong Kong and is a registered architect in Hong Kong. He currently serves as an Associate Professor and the Acting Head of the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong Chu Hai College. Within the academic realm, he imparts his expertise by teaching the history of Oriental art and architecture, with a specialisation in the composition and projection systems utilised in traditional paintings.
In 2018, he received the Silver Award in the “UOB Art in Ink Awards.” His artworks have been showcased in various galleries and art fairs in Hong Kong and London, including his solo exhibition titled "The Three Realms of Suffering" in 2022.
For Stan, ink painting is like a language. Choosing to create with ink is as natural to him as using his mother tongue. It is his most natural way of artistic expression, even though his themes are not limited to specific regions. They encompass philosophy, religion, politics, and even metaphors of sexuality.
Although he employs ink as his medium, he departs from the conventional distant perspective found in traditional Oriental landscape painting. Instead, he embraces a close-up view, delving into the microcosmic world and exploring the intimate spaces on his own skin. While he seldom directly incorporates landscapes into his paintings, he frequently portrays celestial phenomena, mountains, and rivers within the microscopic contours of the skin. Each texture on his palm resembles a brushstroke within a scripture, symbolising his journey of spiritual formation.
His background as a scholar of architecture informs his pursuit of precision. While intricately capturing the inherent structures of textures, he also dramatically interprets the play of light upon those textures.

黎東耀生於1973年香港。埋首建築廿年，踏入不惑之年始執筆弄墨，師從建築師／畫家馮永基。他具香港大學哲學博士學位及香港註冊建築師資格，現為香港珠海學院建築系副教授及系主任，專授東方建築與藝術史，以及傳統繪畫構圖與投影系統。作為2018年大華銀行水墨大賽銀獎得主，其多幅作品曾於香港及倫敦畫廊及藝博會展出，包括2022年舉行之個展「苦海三界」。
對黎東耀而言，水墨猶如一種語言，選擇以水墨創作就如他運用母語一樣，是最自然的藝術表達方式，縱然他的主題不限於特定地域，涉及包括哲學、宗教、政治，乃至性的隱喻。
他雖以水墨為媒介，卻一反傳統東方山水畫慣常的極遠視點，以接近零距離之視角，走進微觀世界，發掘隱沒於自身皮膚中的私密空間。他雖少有直接以山水入畫，卻常透過所描繪的微觀皮膚中盡見天象與山川，表現以小見大的美學觀。手掌上每一筆紋理彷彿經文中的一字一劃，構成他的自我修練過程。
他的建築學者背景引導了他對精確性的執着，表面上精於細緻描繪肌理所蘊含的結構，實質上是對照射在肌理上的光線進行戲劇性詮釋。