Rainbow Lakes

This exhibition surveys the artist's practice and incorporates two distinct bodies of work: wall hung constructions of found materials and works made from strung toothpicks. The threaded strands of toothpicks are draped and woven around a pattern of nails hammered into the wall, creating a sea of marks that shimmer with colour and movement. The artist labouriously paints the toothpicks with acrylic or watercolour paint. The regular application of colour creates a pixilated surface that suggests the electronic hyper-activity of the computer screen. Most of the toothpick works take the simple outline form of pants, making reference to the artist's origins in rural China and to a contemporary gay identity. 

The other major grouping of works in the exhibition consists of constructions, built from found materials, that hang on or protrude from the wall. The artist maintains a storehouse of bits and pieces of stuff that have fallen off or become dislodged from their original function, the detritus of everyday life. The predominant materials are stems and branches of plants from the artist's garden. Kai intends these works to be viewed like a Chinese scroll painting, as a whole piece from a greater viewing distance, but also intimately as an unfolding narrative. Based on the artist's experimentations with jewellery as body sculpture, the work is often on a scale that refers directly to the human body.