“If you frequent one particular pool as I do, you’ll start to notice the same people there again and again. We don’t know anything about each other, but there’s an unspoken connection between us, almost like a sense of community.” — Chan Wai Lap
Chan Wai Lap | Image courtesy of the artist and Zolima City Mag
Chan Wai Lap (b. 1988, Hong Kong) is an artist who draws on his past experience and affection for collectibles by using simple materials to portray serious issues with a sense of humor, and explore the connection between audience, everyday objects, and experience. Deriving inspiration from swimming, Chan examines the duality between public and private spheres of life, delving into the essence of humanity and his inner self. He believes that the swimming pool, a public facility for collective leisure and sport, is a place where we feel normal exposing our body to strangers, blurring the boundary between public and private.
Received his Bachelor of Art (Hons) in Visual Communication from Birmingham City University in 2011, in his early creative practice, Chan’s body of work is inspired by his continual fascination with his memories of high school life, looking at memory as a social construct, classism in the education system, contemporary value system, and a lost sense of self-identity. He currently concentrates on his inner self. With swimming as the core of inspiration in his artistic practice, Chan has started creating artworks around the theme of public swimming pools since 2016.
Chan Wai Lap, “I Will Always Be On Your Side”, 2020 | Image courtesy of the artist
Chan’s work has exhibited in various art institutions, including Gallery Exit, Hong Kong (2021); Hong Kong Art Central (2021); Tai Kwun Contemporary (2020); Fringe Club, Hong Kong (2019); Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences (2019); halka sanat projesi, Istanbul(2019); School of Visual Arts, New York (2018) and among others. He has received the Finalist of The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, and the Award for Young Artist (Visual Arts), Hong Kong Arts Development Awards (2019).
Swimming as the core of inspiration in his artistic practice
Since 2016, Chan has been making meticulous, grid-like drawings of swimming pools. In 2011, he formed an artist duo named Dirty Paper after graduated from the art school in the UK and returned to Hong Kong. Five years later, the artist duo decided to explore solo projects. While working alone, Chan found himself stuck in a creative rut, making decision to distract himself by learning how to swim.
Chan Wai Lap, “Barry will always be on your side”, 2021 | Image courtesy of the artist
Swimming pools provided Chan with inspiration for his art, being attracted by the physical form of pools: the gridded patterns, the colours of the tiles, and the reflection and refraction of light in the water. After brainstorming different ways he could portray the blue rectangle on paper, he settled on using colour pencils. Chan likened the act of sketching in each tile with small, frequent strokes, to swimming, a sport of repetitive muscle movements. Filling in each grid meticulously and watching the pencil become shorter as he worked gave him a sense of satisfaction that he could not describe.
Chan Wai Lap, “You come to me on a summer breeze – Kowloon Park”, 2022 | Image courtesy of the artist and Sunpride Foundation
“You come to me on a summer breeze” is the series of his documentation on various shapes and forms of the public swimming pools around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Sydney, Istanbul, Paris, Phuket and Hong Kong. Over time, Chan began thinking about the pool as a public space: a complex place where people are physically exposed, often wearing very little, but are forced into close proximity. A space where the same people might see each other every day for months on end, but never talk.
From grid-like drawings to attention-grabbing large-scale installations
After all his time spent at the pools, Chan became captivated not only by their architectural beauty, but also the dynamics of human behaviour in communal spaces. In 2021, Chan began exploring the social aspects of swimming pools when he unveiled a large-scale installation “The Lonesome Changing Room” at Art Central, Hong Kong.
Chan Wai Lap, “The Lonesome Changing Room”, Art Central, Hong Kong, 2021 | Image courtesy of the artist and Art Central, Hong Kong
The installation was a functional changing room, complete with benches, showers, lockers and a full-time performer, who stretched, brushed his teeth, and occasionally even appeared to change out of his clothes in front of visitors. This work prompted visitors to consider the architecture of this practical, functional space, and made viewers to reflect on the delicate social interactions that spring up inside changing rooms.
Chan Wai Lap, “Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars”, 2023 | Image courtesy of the artist
“Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars” (2023) was a life-sized tiled swimming-pool installation with the size of 5.5m (W) x 11m (L) X 4m (D) outside Hong Kong Museum of Art, drawing busy commuters to reflect and gaze upward at the sky. The floor of the pool wascovered in dark blue tiles dotted with a few silver tiles that form stars. The colour then transitions into a lighter blue on the walls of the pool. “It’s my first time building a real mosaic – normally I draw or paint it.” Working on this installation has allowed Chan to indulge in his fantasy of building his own pool.