Veteran actor and dedicated artist Simon Yam (任達華) recently offered a profound look into his creative philosophy during an interview on Metro Luxury with hosts Caca Lam and Desmond So, broadcast on Metro Broadcast. Yam promoted his upcoming solo photography exhibition and coinciding book launch, The Essence of Existence: A Journey of Life and Art, revealing how his work uses the decay and bloom of flowers as a powerful metaphor for Hong Kong’s enduring vitality and transformation.
Yam’s exhibition, scheduled from November 11th to 18th at the Hong Kong Fringe Club, culminates years of his dedication to photographic aesthetics beyond his globally recognized acting career. During the broadcast, the polymath detailed the unique inspiration behind his latest project: the discarded, wilted flowers he collects from Flower Market Road—a bustling hub known locally as Fa Yuen Street.
Transforming Decay into Unrepeatable Beauty
Yam confessed to a distinct routine: collecting flowers destined for the bin while simultaneously purchasing fresh blooms. He explained that these discarded specimens, undergoing a natural oxidation process over several days, develop hues and textures impossible to replicate artificially.
“I felt I must retrieve these wilting flowers and buy fresh ones too,” Yam stated, describing the profound beauty he finds in their deterioration. “These various colors and internal textures, developed through oxidation, are something we cannot copy or capture through painting alone.”
His artistic practice involves combining these flowers—at various stages of life, from vibrant to fallen—and integrating elements of traditional Chinese ink painting into the photographic medium. This juxtaposition of the “static, fading aesthetic” and the “very bright aesthetic” seeks to document a process of visual rebirth, granting the seemingly spent life a valuable second act.
Hong Kong: A City of Constant Renewal
For Yam, this floral art is inherently linked to the spirit of his home city. He drew parallels between the transformative nature of the flowers and the storied changes witnessed along Victoria Harbour.
“Just like our Hong Kong, it started as a small fishing port. Over the years, it moved from a quiet, relatively colorless era to what it is today—the brilliant Pearl of the Orient,” Yam reflected.
He sees the constant movement, the changing lights, and the dynamic colors of the metropolis as an ever-shifting ink wash scroll (水墨畫). Through the delicate balance of fragility and splendor found in the cycle of floral life, Yam intends to capture Hong Kong’s ceaseless energy and enduring resilience.
The technical execution of the project proved challenging, described by Yam as a precise “race against time.” He meticulously observes the oxidation process, rushing to pair fresh flowers with his collected subjects precisely at the moment their color achieves the ideal, desired “static beauty.” The addition of flowing ink effects further complicated the demanding shoots.
Embracing Future and Innovation
When asked about the source of his boundless energy, Yam shared his lifelong motto: “Stay hungry, but stay strong.” This foundational curiosity drives his artistic exploration, which spans acting, photography, painting, and fashion design.
Looking ahead, Yam is already planning his next frontier: collaborating with AI technology companies on a project themed around the year 3025. He expressed a playful confidence in his lasting artistic legacy: “I absolutely believe that 1,000 years from now, everyone in this world will be asking why someone named Simon Yam painted or photographed me a millennium ago.”
Yam urged young people in Hong Kong to fully embrace burgeoning technologies like Artificial Intelligence in their creative endeavors. He views innovation as critical to the city’s future vitality.
“I hope to encourage young people to think more, utilize AI and other new technologies in sci-tech creation, to open their minds, develop different products, design different things, and also establish their own intellectual property (IP), giving Hong Kong even more dynamism,” he concluded. His work serves as both a beautiful artistic statement and a vibrant call for the city to maintain its spirit of perpetual transformation.
