Evelyn Sum Yuet Chan (Y12C)

The Secret World

Signed ‘EvelynChan’ lower right acrylic on canvas 60.5 x 50.6 cm (23 7/8 x 19 7/8 in.) Painted in 2023.

Provenance
Courtesy of the Artist and YCIS

Click here to view additional images of the present lot.

Estimates: HKD10,000-20,000

Starting bid: HKD5,000

Donor: Evelyn Sum Yuet Chan (YCIS, Y12C)

"I like to paint to escape from stress, it is The Secret World for me is where I can express freedom and peacefulness." - Evelyn Chan

Floating on a boat, two human figures are having a relaxing row around a beautiful fish pond filled with lotus leaves and flowers. However, upon closer inspection, it seemed to be out of proportion. The lotus leaves looked gigantic when compared with the figures. If the lotus leaves are life-sized, then the figures must only be four-inch-tall people. The Secret World is in fact a magical world where tiny people exists!

This brings to mind one of Studio Ghibli’s animations, The Secret World of Arrietty, a story about four-inch-tall people borrowing simple objects from life-sized humans to sustain life and making their small home. If you are the successful bidder of this work, and some objects of your home start going missing, you would know who have been visiting your home!

This work is specially created for the YC 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner Auction. Evelyn Chan started her passion for arts and taking art lessons when she was only four years old. She finds art-making fascinating as a way to express her imagination and communicate her feelings, ideas and thoughts with other people through the imagery she creates in physical form. She feels that “I’m a part of the art and everything becomes so simple and clear”. She aspires to become an architect one day.