Journey of a yellow man - lee wen 李文

Performance, 20 minutes
City of London Polytechnic
April 1992, London

              I've used the yellow man image in various drawings and paintings. This time I was manifesting it by using my body as an element in sculpture, by painting myself yellow and appearing in performance as the yellow man. I improvised with 2 red chains of 3 meters in length each. The colors were esthetically contrasting and they soon took on symbolic values as well.
             Yellow pigment on my yellow skin was an emphasis on my ethnicity. While living in London and meeting many Chinese people from different countries and cultural backgrounds, I found that many of my characteristics and attitudes were uniquely Singaporean. Therefore I wanted to elevate the symbolism of yellow to that of the color of the sun or that of gold. If symbols were still necessary. In art today, let them be of universal appeal, going beyond ethnicity. The sun and gold have often had associations with energy, nobility and spirituality. My wish was to perhaps give the hope that man can manifest these qualities.