Mapping the pulse of Sham Shui Po
Exploring the integration of Past and Present
around one of the oldest districts in the heart of Hong Kong
以地圖刻畫深水埗的脈絡
聚睛新舊融會的香港城中舊區
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Li Chi Tak's work-in-progress. Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Schoeni Projects.
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Li Chi Tak gathering materials in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Courtesy of Schoeni Projects.
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About Li Chi Tak
❝ There is no need to differentiate alternative comics from commercial comics, for the so-called 'alternative' is just another side of the commercial. Comics is at the same time a form of art. ❞ - Li Chi Tak
Li began his career in the comics industry in 1982. After working for a corporate comics publisher in Hong Kong for a month, he decided to start his own venture as a freelancer. Following on from the release of The Wisely series, he self-published Tong Men Shao Nian, a prominent title which rocketed him to fame in 1987. He has since developed a distinctive art style, creating his own visual world with eerily experimental works that broke genre rules.
Black Mask, Assassins, Tien Yao Ji, Superbaby, Little Strawberry, and K are major works that he created in the early stage of his career. Selected publications from this decade include The Voyager, The Lover, and Folio, Little Circle, Vicious and Solar Eclipse.
Li’s transmedia creations transcend the boundary of comics and expand into movies, experimental theatres, literature, pop music and sculptures. His idiosyncratic style has attracted the attention and commissions from local and international brands such as Nike, New Balance, IdN, Uniqlo, Starbucks and Hong Kong International Airport.
Li is also well-known to the international comics scene. His comics have been published in places like Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mainland China, France and Italy since the 90s.
In 2016, the Hong Kong Arts Centre had jointly curated Li’s solo exhibition with the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France as one of the Festival’s thematic exhibitions. His French comics The Beast, a collaborative project with the famous Belgian writer Jean Dufaux, was released at the same time. This solo exhibition had given birth to another international cooperation opportunity. Li was invited by the Louvre Museum to create a new comics Moon of the Moon. The French version has been released in November 2019 in Europe, with a Hong Kong Chinese version keenly in preparation by local publisher, Today Publications.
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