Da Xiao Ren

Superstitions to me are a vast and intriguing area I want to further explore. 

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My inspiration comes from my culture and the environment around me, I love walking around to gather new stimuli that you won't be able to gather when you're on transport.

 

This project was sparked walking under a bridge in Hong Kong, right in the middle of the city, where you see old ladies slapping paper cut outs with slippers, attempting to put curses on their clients enemies…  this is called "Da Xiao Ren" a street culture we have where you usually put your head down and walk past these stalls, as it is believed you would get bad karma from casting spells onto others.

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I find this culture so quirky and unique, so I wanted to bring light as well as a sort of humour to this practice.

 

Stepping out of the usual constraints of a canvas/ frame, I used slippers as my base and painted people I photographed ( yes I made them squish their faces onto a glass wall) as if they were getting hit by the curses.

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They range in detail to allude to the different stages of the curse being brought down onto them.

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This series will be an installation piece, where all the slippers would be hanging from the ceiling under red light in a dark room.

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Acrylic on Chinese Home slippers

2019-20