There are two components in this painting - a face's side view and street patterns. I arranged the colours and tones in such a way that the street patterns played a dominant role. I intended to lead the viewers to perceive the stripes as streets, not as part of a human face's bone structure. Once the viewers follow this line of thinking, the human face is barely recognisable.
This is a metaphor for the notion of “alternative histories”. As long as one version of history prevails, it is not easy to see other possible interpretations.
Reference: Aerial photos in 1947 and satellite map in 2021 of the Kowloon Peninsula.
