IDENTITY CAN simply be who you are. But is it really that simple? Joe Joe Ngai Hoi-lut, who uses identity as the topic for many of his paintings, is not sure it needs defining.
Ngai, 27, has many faces. To his friends he is a serious student who has walked a winding road in his pursuit of art. In art, he sees himself as a curious person who raises many questions through his work. But many believe his pictures are too provocative. While at art school in London, Ngai touched on topics such as racial and sexual identity. He once drew a collage featuring the line: my children don't see colour. However, he says the irony is you have to distinguish between differences in colour to read the message.
'We have been programmed to avoid, or even deny, race as a means to overcome discrimination. But the fact is we all see colour,' he says.
'Instead of shying away from it, we should celebrate the differences. Then we could perhaps overcome discrimination.'
Ngai has come a long way since his days growing up in Hong Kong.
Like many young children, he was influenced by Japanese cartoons. 'At first I wanted to be an animator. But, as I got older, it did not seem a realistic thing to do, so I gave up [drawing] when I was 15.' His artistic talent was only realised after a trip to London two years ago. 'I met some people there who encouraged me to pursue art, even though at the time it was a very personal thing and certainly not something I thought of as a career,' he says.
Identity and insecurity are recurring themes in Ngai's works. He believes identity should be deeper than skin colour and language - it should embrace the person's perception and existence.