The spectacular, panoramic East Lamma Channel view seen from Simon Birch's Ap Lei Chau studio reflects some of the raw physicality evident in his new exhibition of figurative paintings, Laughing with a Mouth Full of Blood, which is opening on Thursday at the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences.
'The marriage of arts and science is a beautiful tradition dating back to the Renaissance. All this new work is a study of the flesh and about movement,' says the painter.
Birch's huge canvases will fill the museum's two ground-floor spaces. A figurative artist who has lived in Hong Kong since 1997, his new work shows a looser style using flat planes of paint spread with a palette knife to create strong gestural movement across the canvas. He captures the fluidity of motion by working with models whom he photographs. 'There is a sense of ambiguity,' he says. 'I am depicting the duality of the horrific and beautiful. These floating figures are either falling or flying. It is a snapshot in time; the flying could actually be during a moment of violence.'
Displaying a freer, more confident painting hand or as he says a 'more liberal expressionism', Birch's work also toys with abstraction with splashes of paint across many of the paintings. 'I like the push and pull of abstraction and it makes the depicted figure bounce between frailty and abstracted distortion.'
Birch himself has had a similar push-and-pull life over the past three years, including a remarkable recovery from a life-threatening illness plus praise and criticism from a divided arts community, about his ambitious self-organised Hope and Glory exhibition visited by thousands of people last year.
The urge to do similar large independent projects led to his breaking away from 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, which previously represented his work, and the 41-year-old now markets his art and organises large group exhibitions.
The Briton's hard work and self-confidence is legendary, but this new venture coincides with a personal change in priorities. 'I previously wanted fame and to make money, but there is more clarity now. The most important ability is to let things go,' he says. 'I just want to be an artist. Just do art and share it with the world. I know it sounds soft, but I see how art affects people.'