“We need our sad moments because without them we wouldn’t know how happiness feels.”
b.wingb.wing shares intimacy and stories through her emblematic character, A-Boy. Forever seven years old, he has cartoon rabbit ears and soulful eyes. Sketched on a piece of toilet paper in 2006, A-Boy expresses both his own and b.wing’s thoughts and emotions. Solitude is a recurring theme. The artist paints in oils with deft brushwork on canvas, the colours and tones, subtle but radiant. In contrast, watercolours tend towards black and white, or a primary palette. Titles are humorous and quietly optimistic. In I can’t do this, but I am doing it anyway (2019) a girl dances awkwardly at a party. Other titles link A-Boy to popular culture – Squid Game (2021) is named after the Netflix series.
b.wing’s art practice is confessional. Difficulties she experienced as a child inform her creative work. By drawing and painting, she reviews her past and finds a way to transcend it. “Some people might play the guitar, others listen to music, my choice was drawing. If not, I might have gone crazy.” To b.wing, the imaginary A-Boy has become a friend. She talks to him while she’s painting. Recently, the reclusive A-Boy has finally found nine new friends. In an animated trailer series b.wing created for Hong Kong cinemas, he plays instruments while cartoon characters around him dance. Like b.wing, A-Boy has become a “star” in his own right.
JPS Gallery (Hong Kong)
218-219, Landmark Atrium,
15 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong
