Oscar CHAN Yik Long: “Why Can Only Apollo Carry the Sun?”

In a cubic studio in Helsinki sheathed in canvas and teeming with mythological aurae, Hong Kong artist Oscar CHAN Yik Long speaks of Athenian sun, Nordic sunlessness, and the kindling of an inner incandescence (self-portrait below).

Last October we published Oscar’s Melted Stars zine, in which astral entities emerge out of splashed black ink—a monochromatic aurora. Oscar is now at work on his next Bored Wolves book, for 2024. A sketchbook hints at a palette poised to sunburst, with occasional lunar ricochets.

Oscar CHAN Yik Long with his convective self-portrait, a canvas that will be included in a solo exhibition at Cazul 101 in Bucharest, Romania this spring. (Photograph taken at Kohta in Helsinki, with paintings by Henry Wuorila-Stenberg on the wall behind Oscar.)

Oscar CHAN Yik Long watercolor. Sun invites itself to every moon parade.

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A reminder that in the aftermath of the devastating February 6 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, and in the face of an ongoing humanitarian crisis including the displacement of millions during a bitter cold snap, Bored Wolves is donating 100% of all sales from our Turkish poetry books on boredwolves.com to the grass-roots earthquake relief effort.

The first $1,800 in reader support has already been transferred, through our Turkish contacts, directly to individuals on the ground getting life-saving and sustaining supplies to those who need them in the impacted regions of southeastern Turkey. In cooperation with our poets, we will continue to donate sales indefinitely.