Straight from the heart

Spontaneous creations

Chan was drawn to objects with totemic associations. He found inspiration in the large-scale bamboo banners erected to celebrate festivals in Hong Kong and antique Chinese bronze vessels, for example. Both Carnival and Heart of Shaman conjure up the image of a world with similar mystical objects that come across as powerfully arresting. "They are the most obvious examples of Chan referencing the clear-cut geometrical lines of pre-historic Inuit and ancient Chinese artifacts," Wong says.

Chow's favorites from the show include Red Green Blades (1992) - a huge yellow circle with relatively tiny blades bearing red and green stripes stuck along its circumference. "It looks like a rotating organic life form full of enormous energy! The color is so luminous," she says.

Chan was a colorist who often aimed to express a sense of joie de vivre through his paintings. Chow mentions that her husband believed in being spontaneous in his use of color, relying on instinct rather than meticulous planning, or even thinking about his process. "Gaylord called this the 'color synergy effect'," she says.

Another exhibition highlight, Growing Old (1993), is part of a series in which Chan experimented with metallic colors. In it we see a vaguely organic shape propped up on six stilts, or, alternatively, crawling on animal, or even human, limbs. The anthropomorphic object is as confounding as it is delightful.

Also on display at the exhibition are archival materials and footage digitized from video recordings showing Chan at work. Wong says these are meant to give the audience an idea of Chan's teaching method, past exhibitions, and overseas travel. There are images of Chan at the construction site of the first submarine cable connecting Hong Kong, Luzon in the Philippines, and Okinawa in Japan. The project was inaugurated in 1977. Chan also helped set up a new telecom link between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, with a maximum capacity of 2,700 voice channels, in 1983.