Pak Sheung Chuen revels in distilling complex ideas about people's daily lives with equal doses of curiosity and humor. Born in Fujian, China, Pak immigrated to Hong Kong at age seven. After graduating from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Pak became a founding member of Hong Kong's 2nd Floor 5 Sons Studio. As a visual and performance artist, Pak analyzes modern urban life, wryly exploring society's relationship with globalization, the environment, politics, and religion. His art particularly draws on the perspective of the individual facing life in Asia's immense cities. His work has been shown in numerous international exhibitions, and his solo exhibition, Page 22, is permanently installed in New York's 58th Street Branch Library. Pak is currently representing Hong Kong at the prestigious Venice Biennale art exposition.

Kismot: How did you come to be an artist?

Pak Sheung Chuen: I studied fine art at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Afterwards, I worked as a columnist in a local newspaper and did artwork for them every week. It is a great training to change my style from painter to be more "conceptual." I was very productive and learned quite a lot in that period (2003-2006).

K: "Travel without Visual Experience" is an account of your tour through Malaysia with your eyes covered during the entire time. What was the inspiration for this piece?

P: I did this artwork after reading a poem from Taiwanese author Hung Hung. At times, I also recall watching a Japanese TV series about a young girl who had recovered from blindness and revisited her old home and the roads she had been through - like visiting a new place she had not been to, her tears dropped. My Japanese writer-friend heard the story and also told me another story from a French literary fiction – an author toured with a group of blind children walking up the Effiel Tower in Paris. When reaching the top, they started to cry one after another because none of them could see anything from the top.
I think having sight to see and being blind to "see" are equally precious and important experience. This is my reason for doing this piece of artwork.

K: What are the main themes or concepts in your recent work?

P: Everyday simple life is my forever content on making artwork. Recently, I've become concerned with how to make every day closer to eternity.

K: Can you describe your artist process?

P: I need art before I make art. So artwork is like some nutrition for my life. If I just live everyday normally, artwork will come out silently. If there is a very "hard" art project before me, I will always try to escape from it.