High Life

30 品 He used Hong Kong as a backdrop to play out his spectacular vision of what is really going on in the psyche of the “Me Generation” – a generation that grew up with smart phones in hand and with a heightened attention to all things visual. These characters find comfort in their strangeness, their sexual exploits, the expressions of their subculture and their dance with melancholy. To feel alone is an epidemic in modern city life and thus this series resonates not only with the young but all urban creatures. The series cost HK$3 million to shoot and involved a creative team of close to 100 people. Entirely self-funded, it took two years to complete but Shya couldn’t be more satisfied with the result. “I’ve definitely got what I wanted,” he smiles. In November last year, Shya held his first major retrospective exhibition in Shanghai, taking many people back to the booming 1990s when Hong Kong’s entertainment culture flourished. It leads us to the inevitable question of how he sees the development of Hong Kong’s culture nowadays. “I think culture is something that should be a dynamic balance,” he answers seriously. “When it goes down, it may not be a bad thing. It depends on how you play with it – just like a roller coaster you can challenge yourself and get fun from there. “If we stay forever in the bustling state of the 1990s, I’ll feel bored. Why should we stay in the best of times forever?” WINGSHYA, SWEETSORROW, FEAST[HONGKONG,2013], COURTESYOFBLUELOTUSGALLERY