Exhibiting at the Patel Brown Gallery is Howie Tsui’s A Click Track for Pugilists. Each work on display engages with the exploration of macro and micro elements in our daily lives, searching for that metronomic beat that creates stability and consistency. Tsui’s works carry an eerie and gruesome undertone, exemplified by grotesque and demon like caricatures. There’s an illustrative quality to his works in which he creates a surrealist world that places these caricatures in fun and unusual contexts, adding a humorous touch. Tsui creates worlds within worlds, and characters within characters, where multiple narratives are carried out in each artwork. Each story unravels itself as you take a closer look at different sections of the piece, where even a character itself can be a story of its own.
Howie Tsui, Veranda Pounce, 2024, paint pigment and ink on mulberry paper mounted on wood, 24 x 36 inches. Courtesy of Patel Brown Gallery
At first glance, “Tavern Havoc” resembles a traditional Chinese hanging scroll painting where perspectives are stacked on top of each other. Within each level, mini narratives are occurring at the same time as if we are seeing multiple film scenes laid out on one surface. Working with varying planes and levels, the narrative in this work is an added western component that differs from the scenes captured in traditional Chinese paintings. This cinematic aspect is a common motif in Tsui’s works, where he takes the audience on a journey, giving it a storyboard like quality. Although seemingly separate stories, each narrative portrays a fight scene that Tsui has taken from contemporary Hong Kong kung fu or wuxia movies, specifically the Shaw Brothers Studio, which often sees this montage of multiple fights in a restaurant, hotel, or other public spaces, and in this specific work, a tavern. What makes it uniquely inspired by kung fu movies and not just any western movie fight scene is the details of the characters’ costumes, appearance, and props. These characters are illustrated with long and thin eyes which are distinctive Asian features, Qing dynasty hairstyle and hats with Chinese opera masks, bottle gourd, and swords. Taking inspiration from Qing dynasty ghost stories as prompts for his work, Tsui seamlessly merges the historic and the contemporary. He masterfully works with the negative space to create texture with these swirl-like brushstrokes often seen in Chinese ink on paper or silk paintings. His conviction and skill are demonstrated in his ability to work with the blank spaces as the Japanese paper used in his work makes it difficult to erase, leaving little to no space for error.
Howie Tsui, Tavern Havoc, 2015, ink, paint pigment on mulberry paper, 82 ¼ x 42 7/8 inches. Photo: Sherry Qin
Etched onto deerskin parchment is a five-part series of soldiers in varying degrees of suffering. Soldiers, who are usually seen as heroic figures, are shown to be mutilating themselves through injury and illness to prevent themselves from going to war. War has always been seen as black and white, winners and losers, murderers and innocents. But every individual contributes to both good and bad, acting in their own self-interest—whether driven by desperation, fear or the need to survive—yet not without compassion in their soul. Instead of this lofty expectation of heroism from the soldiers, Tsui offers a more realistic imagery of the internal conflicts that occur amongst the soldiers. These acts can be interpreted as being out of desperation and cowardice for their bleak outlook on life. Alternatively, this self-harm can be seen as attempts to stop themselves from inflicting harm on others. Despite the grim setting, Tsui adds a touch of comic relief by exaggerating facial features such as the pointy noses and widely spaced eyes that are popping out of their sockets. It allows a lightheartedness while being contemplative and sincere about subjects that may be hard to approach.
Howie Tsui, Of Malingers, Skulkers and Dupes (1-5), 2012, acrylic ink on deerskin parchment, variable dimensions. Photo: Sherry Qin
Aboard this ghostly floating restaurant (JUMBO) is a montage of characters Tsui has drawn over the course of his career with additional new characters, from Disney shows or movie crossovers. Drawn in the style of a Ming dynasty imperial palace, there’s a Chinatown quality that comes from the deliberate desire to imitate distinctively Chinese architecture and scenery. Chinatown is often seen as the identity of the Chinese diaspora and known for being created using the imagery of what is stereotypically thought of as Chinese, which Tsui draws from his own experiences growing up overseas.
He continues to bring in a cinematic element through the layering of narratives that create depth in his works, where the audience will find themselves down a rabbit hole of various characters and stories. The different levels, rooms and characters, likewise, offer a video game quality to the work presenting the layout of each game level with its unique storyline and characters that the player must pass to win the game.
Howie Tsui, Jumbo, 2024, digital art, 44 x 96 inches. Courtesy of Patel Brown Gallery
Howie Tsui brings together scenes from Hong Kong cinema’s golden age to create this phenomenal collection of film GIFs in “GIF Roulette”. In this seemingly chaotic composition of GIFs, there are patterns to be found in these rows and columns. The patterns were not made with artistic intent but rather accidentally. Tsui made these discoveries going through his collection of film scenes, such as the common occurrence of snakes, circular objects and architecture. The setup can be seen as a replica of the control room where all the security camera footage is gathered onto one screen. No matter where you are standing, all the screens are visible to you, which alludes to the flatness that is seen in all of Tsui’s works. His multiple narratives are occurring on one plane. A Click Track for Pugilists explores the desire to seek consistency and stability within chaos and examine the micro and macro aspects of our daily lives.
Howie Tsui, GIF Roulette, 2020-ongoing, 3-channel 4k video with stereo sound. Photo: Sherry Qin
Sherry Qin
*Exhibition information: Howie Tsui: A Click Track for Pugilists, January 11 – February 22, 2025, 21 Wade Ave, #2, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue – Sat, 10 am – 6 pm.