Local artist Carmen Lei Ka Man shared her story, thoughts and future plans with The Macau Post Daily in a recent phone interview, saying that she hoped to use “words” to promote English-language literature in Macau.
Lei currently works as a full-time secondary school teacher in a local English-language school. She is an artist, covering different areas, such as photography, painting, and literature.
Lei’s story
Lei told The Macau Post Daily that she has loved creating artworks since she was young. However, she said, due to family conditions at that time, she studied Communication at the public University of Macau (UM). In her fourth year at university, she was inspired by her teacher, a Singaporean artist, Lei said. “The artist made me realise that I still had a passion for art and creation.”
Lei said that at that time she used red-white-blue bags to present part of the city’s life, for which she took different photos of red-white-blue bags used by people in Macau, such as people using the red-white-blue bags to cover their vehicles, adding that her teacher helped her take part in an exhibition in Hong Kong after seeing her works.
Lei hosted her first exhibition “In the Name of Love” at Mong-Ha Villas last month. However, due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the exhibition, which was slated to run until June 28, was closed a week early.
‘In the Name of Love’ exhibition
When asked why she used “In the Name of Love” as the title of her exhibition, Lei said she thinks that today’s society needs more love, especially because there is so much “hatred” on the internet, adding that it was meaningful for her to use “love” as the title of her first exhibition. She also said she believed that love can present humanity and, at the same time, love is also a connection between people all over the world.
Lei said she hopes the love she presents in her poems allows visitors and readers to recall memories and experiences of their own lives, adding that the love in her poems is beautiful but also pitiful. Lei said she hopes the readers can bring to mind the junction of beauty and pity in their memories, underlining that life is full of different sides, and no matter whether love is “good” or “bad”, people should accept it as part of their lives.
Lei’s exhibition covered many English-language poems. Lei said as an English-language teacher, she hopes to promote English culture, such as English literature in Macau, adding that there are not many people who promote English literature in the city, so that she wants to do more in this area.
Future plans
However, due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the exhibition could not end as planned. Lei said she feels sorry as many of her friends had planned to visit the exhibition and buy the book of poems, which Lei had written, in the last week of the exhibition. Lei told The Macau Post Daily that she would try to apply to the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) to extend the date of the exhibition after the number of COVID-19 cases has gone down.
Meanwhile, Lei said she was planning another exhibition with her student, in which the student may exhibit her photographs while she could use English-language poems and paintings to present Macau’s stories.
Local artists facing different difficulties
Moreover, Lei said: “It is difficult to be a full-time artist in Macau”, adding that visual art is not well developed in the city. Lei also said that although the local government is developing the cultural and creative industries, many local artists fail to promote their artworks as there are not many strategies for art collections. Consequently, Lei said she believed that the number of contemporary local artists is less than 10 in Macau. Therefore, Lei said she hoped that the government could provide more resources for local artists to develop their art in Macau, thus promoting the city’s cultural and creative industries.
Lei also said she hoped the government could implemented a plan for an “artist village”, which would provide a platform where senior artists could lead a group of young artists to create artworks, adding that different workshops or seminars could also be held at the “artist village”, so as to promote different kinds of culture, such as art, in the city.
This undated photo shows Carmen Lei Ka Man working on a painting.
This undated photo shows Carmen Lei Ka Man posing.
All photos provided by the artist.
