Kenny WaiFu Lui
Dhikrayat
Oil Pastels on Wood
Living Room

Artist Statement

In his Dhikrayat series, artist Kenny WaiFu Lui draws parallels between the play of sunlight and shadows through the wooden jali (screens) at Shangri La, exploring how memories are imprinted upon the mind. Layers of black-on-black oil pastel on wood panels mirror the mind as seen through the lens of memory. With each layer of oil pastel broken and smashed upon the wood panels, Lui creates a textured terrain. Not every mark endures. Similarly, memory too is selective, with some fragments brought to the surface more vividly than others, often against our will. The artist refers to the jali as an element which represents a liminal space between the tangible world and the inner workings of the mind.

This interplay of light and memory serves as a visual representation of the human experience, where the enduring and ephemeral coexist in our consciousness.

Kenny WaiFu Lui 

Kenny WaiFu Lui was born in 1985 in Hong Kong. Lui currently lives and works in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. A BFA graduate from the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa, Lui is interested in art marking as a “cathartic release”. The process of making marks, layers, and texture is Lui's way to overcome the emotions of traumatic experiences. He uses repetitive marks to create layers, mimics of memories that replay in his mind evoking past trauma. He breaks and smashes oil pastels with his hands on the substrate to build up texture. For Lui, this is a cathartic process; using physical pain to release emotional pain.