Have you ever looked at your socks and thought they would be great for a painting? No, not as a subject, but as the object to create the painting itself. Most likely no, but Hong Yi - or Red, as she is more widely known in the art community - has definitely had this train of thought and most impressively, has gone on to create a number of paintings using socks, among many other unconventional mediums.
That is one unusual way to paint, you'd think, and you'd be right. Red has carved a name for herself creating artworks using everyday objects that most of us wouldn't even perceive as art materials.
The 37-year-old has always had an eye for creativity, having grown up doodling cartoons ever since - at age five - she was introduced to Picasso via a reproduction hanging in her parents' bedroom and discovered how art can be created through a few strokes and lines. She did, however, initially choose to pursue a more conventional career back in her twenties for the sake of stability.
"I was not trained in art. I was trained in architecture. So, I have no idea what the art world was about," she confesses. After graduating with Bachelor of Arts in Planning and Design (2007) and Master of Arts in Architecture (2010) degrees at the University of Melbourne, Red left Australia for China in 2011 to begin her working life as an architect.
"When I moved to Shanghai to tap into my roots a bit, that was really what inspired me to create art because it was a change of environment," she says, adding that it was a "culture shock" for her as life growing up as a Sabahan of Chinese descent in Kota Kinabalu and life living among the locals in China were markedly different.
This story is from the March 2023 edition of Prestige Malaysia.
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This story is from the March 2023 edition of Prestige Malaysia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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