Living out her art
Performance artist Wen Yau may have failed as a painter but enjoys being challenged
Wen Yau is a Grade D artist. "Actually, I can't paint," she says cheerfully. "I'm a self-trained artist, I never trained in school. I am a visual artist and I don't know how to paint."
Best known for her experimental performance art, Wen Yau explores ideas of identity, authority and legitimacy in her new show, "I Am a Grade D Artist", on display at Baptist University's Koo Ming Kown Exhibition Gallery until tomorrow.
As a so-called creative person, I believe we can never create something that is completely objective
The show itself is simple: Wen Yau's paintings and drawings line one wall, and on another hangs her Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) and Hong Kong A Levels Examination (HKALE) results.
In the middle sit rows of desks, organised as in an exam room. But the underlying themes are complicated and personal. For the piece, she sat both exams in 2011 and 2013, respectively; it was the final year for each, both in the British system, before they were replaced with a new, single examination.
Wen Yau sat the HKCEE cold and received a D. It wasn't the first time she'd faced academic disapproval for her art. "Ever since I was young, when I painted in school my teacher would tell me it was ugly," she recalls. "I realise now that I was quite abnormal. Compared to ordinary school kids, I was a crazy kid. I was always asking a lot of questions.
"In high school I did a lot of drama, always something political. Even my classmates asked why I was doing it. I didn't know then, but I was trying to understand the world," she says.
After high school, Wen Yau tried her hand at journalism, earning an undergraduate degree at a local university. There, she chafed under direction as well. "The professors kept instructing us to be objective and find the truth. I felt there was no such thing. As a so-called creative person, I believe we can never create something that is completely objective," she says.