A sense of serenity and domestic tranquility permeates Carol Lee Mei-kuen's latest works on paper. In Others, Elsewhere, for instance, the projected stillness in the air is so palpable only the clocks on the wall and mantelpiece hint at the passage of time and the artist's longing; while Dinner II depicts a perfectly laid-out table setting that spells symmetry, harmony and, perhaps, anticipation.
But underneath all that calmness lurks something darker. Intimacy, Lee's new solo show at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, is more about the 47-year-old's coming to terms with the fragility of life, mortality and separation.
Her mother and parents-in-law died within a year, in 2006, but it was the unexpected passing of her mentor and good friend artist Jerry Kwan Fong two years ago that had the most profound impact on her. Having been alerted to his absence by friends, Lee went to his Fo Tan studio to find his body on the floor.
'I'm still very upset by what happened,' she says. 'His death made me want to return to my family and friends, and to pay more attention to everything around me, no matter how small or trivial.
'Intimacy looks at my relationship with my home, as a woman, a mother, a wife and an artist.'
On show is a series of imprints and drawings on newsprint: a broomstick, a doll, a handkerchief or a sparrow - ordinary objects and living things that Lee can find and see around her Pok Fu Lam flat. However, the creation of these images is anything but ordinary as she chooses two unusual mediums for her work: sunlight and time.