Betting Station
Firenze Lai
黎清妍
Production date
2013
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on paper
Measurements
50 x 40.7 cm
Notes
Betting Station (2013), painted with acrylic on paper, reveals Lai’s characteristic figural distortions. A solitary figure sits despondently on a low wall. It seems he is about to be enveloped by the menacing black shadow that looms behind him. His tiny head, tightly clasped hands and exaggerated, enormous legs and feet emphasise a sense of unease and foreboding. A predominantly grey palette is contrasted with the figure’s cheerful yellow shirt, like a reminder of an earlier, happier moment. Lai’s figures often seem boneless, rubbery, all flowing lines and sweeping brush strokes, and this, too, enhances a sense of uncertainty, even despair. She identifies Francis Bacon as a significant influence on her practice as a young artist, and her works, like Bacon’s, take us into the inner worlds of her subjects, into a psychological landscape of doubt.
Accession number
2014.145