Sheng-Kai Chou DFA
Painter
Sheng-Kai Chou was born in Taiwan and has been profoundly deaf since the age of one. In 1996 he received a BA in Fine Art from the Culture University at Taipei in Taiwan. The following year he moved to England where he pursued two MA Fine Art degrees at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent and then at the University of East London. In 2007, Kai received a Professional Doctorate in Fine Art from the University of East London. Since then, he has exhibited widely and internationally.
Kai says: " As a deaf person, I have discovered how to associate visual experience with sounds in my imagination, and then 'interpret' these imaginative transformations into the visual elements which are incorporated into my paintings.
Many of my paintings were initially inspired by a trip to Cornwall. They are not a static picture of a landscape at a given point in time, but represent the displacement of time and space in a landscape. I have used multiple canvases to achieve a sense of space, and their correct juxtaposition to enforce a sense of rhythm has potential for the development of my landscape.
There are also some elements of Sign Language - an essential means of communication between the Deaf - incorporated into the ways I physically use the brush when painting. Signs are not static; they move and flow to convey subtle meanings and nuances. I also associate signs and gestures with sound. Listening to music is a form of relaxation which is not available to me but I do find watching the visible world, the movement of the sea and the waves, or the grass blowing in the wind, relaxing and calming. I associate sounds with these views, and I try to incorporate these associated sounds into my paintings."
Sheng-Kai Chou was born in Taiwan and has been profoundly deaf since the age of one. In 1996 he received a BA in Fine Art from the Culture University at Taipei in Taiwan. The following year he moved to England where he pursued two MA Fine Art degrees at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent and then at the University of East London. In 2007, Kai received a Professional Doctorate in Fine Art from the University of East London. Since then, he has exhibited widely and internationally.
Kai says: " As a deaf person, I have discovered how to associate visual experience with sounds in my imagination, and then 'interpret' these imaginative transformations into the visual elements which are incorporated into my paintings.
Many of my paintings were initially inspired by a trip to Cornwall. They are not a static picture of a landscape at a given point in time, but represent the displacement of time and space in a landscape. I have used multiple canvases to achieve a sense of space, and their correct juxtaposition to enforce a sense of rhythm has potential for the development of my landscape.
There are also some elements of Sign Language - an essential means of communication between the Deaf - incorporated into the ways I physically use the brush when painting. Signs are not static; they move and flow to convey subtle meanings and nuances. I also associate signs and gestures with sound. Listening to music is a form of relaxation which is not available to me but I do find watching the visible world, the movement of the sea and the waves, or the grass blowing in the wind, relaxing and calming. I associate sounds with these views, and I try to incorporate these associated sounds into my paintings."
