Reflection is both an expression and impression. It embodies the outlook of an object as well as the feeling which it provokes. In most two-dimensional arts, the artist uses forms and colours to create a dialogue with the audience. In sculpture, the addition of depth and volume enhances textural quality and a sense of space.
Danny Lee Chin-fai's stainless steel collection is best described as a total reflection. On one hand, they reflect the artist's conceptual focus on karma and attention to everyday object. Inspired by traditional Chinese landscape, Lee's waterfalls and rain drops bring forth a sense of fluidity that resemble calligraphic brushwork, particularly that of cursive script. The other dimension of Lee's work is his loyalty to materials. Constructed with precision and highly polished, they are mirrors that generate images of the surrounding as well as reflections of their beholders. Twisted and warped due to the curvature of the surface, we see ourselves living precariously within a shiny shell only to realise the opposite side of reality. Images within the reflection are truthful but not identical. They show the world in reverse and complete the cycle of cause and effect. It is this double-image that perfectly put Lee's sculpture within the realm of Daoism. While Daoist painter uses positive and negative, painted and empty spaces to portray the duality of the world, Lee takes advantage of his materials intrinsic quality and, combines with form and treatment, creates a tangible and thoroughly contemporary definition of one of the oldest canons in Chinese art.
