Labyrinth

"Labyrinth", done in 1987 to 1988, is perhaps the painting that I am most well known for. It may be the monumental quality of the composition, or the extensive use of the visual element of the labyrinth, or the technically demanding nature of it (no doubt one of the most complicated paintings I have ever painted) that makes this painting more well known than my other paintings.

This is a painting I feel great affinity with, perhaps because it is the embodiment of most of my concerns I've continually tried to express in my art: Concerns with the social change, the life of urban workers, and the impact of globalization and consumerism on our culture and society.

Labyrinth
1987-88
Oil on Canvas

Close-up

In 1990, a statement I gave:

"I am aware of the limitations of the media of the canvas, of space and time. These imprison one; I try to break through them with the use of symbols. With colours, nuances, and various techniques, such as arranging the composition, the one thing that I emphasize amidst all these methods or techniques is symbolism— a simple choice, but one nevertheless full of meanings and complex parables about the life around us which I record. For example, a narrow road which turns and bends, like a labyrinth— many ideas and problems arise in my mind from such a motif. I see people around me becoming apprehensive, anxious, frustrated, feeling a loss of identity. People become very lonely in the midst of the flow of life— therefore a work like "Labyrinth" is born: a description of urban people who face a life situation which is bitter and tortuous. "