Painting Without a Paintbrush

April 6, 2017 2017年4月6日

 

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Known for “painting without a paint brush” and creating masterpieces from unconventional items, Malaysian artist Red Hong Yi has amounted an impressive portfolio of larger than life portraits consisting of some of Asia’s most prominent figures. From the humble teh tarik man, to megastars like Jackie Chan and Jay Chou, and even Singapore’s national symbol, the Merlion, Red has used unorthodox items, such as tea bags, coffee stains, and sunflower seeds, to create symbolic portraits that are astounding in both scale and detail.


马来西亚艺术家Red Hong Yi 被大家称为“不用画笔绘画”的画家,原因是她总能想到出其不意的材料来创作,茶包、瓜子,甚至是咖啡杯底残留在纸上的咖啡渍,都成为了她绘画的“颜料”。她用这些我们日常生活中随手可得的材料,创造出一幅幅以著名亚洲人物为原型的大型肖像作品。从马拉西亚街头的“拉茶人(teh tarik man)”,到超级巨星成龙和周杰伦,再到新加坡的国家象征鱼尾狮。这些画作通常竖立起来比Red的个子还高,但当你走近细看,就会发现Red在创作大画幅作品的同时,也保留到它精致的细节,让人过目不忘。

Ai WeiWei with Sunflower Seeds (2012)
Open Your Eyes (2017)

Ai Wei Wei – Sunflower Seeds

The portrait that started it all was her sunflower seed tribute to Chinese contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei. Red completed this “painting” in an old Shanghainese shikumen alleyway with seven kilograms of sunflower seeds – five years later, she revived this portrait using 20,000 sunflower seeds to create her second Ai Wei Wei portrait, entitled Open Your Eyes.


艾未未,材料: 葵花籽

作为她的第一幅巨型肖像作品,她用葵花籽描绘出中国当代艺术家艾未未。Red 在上海一个传统石库门弄堂完成了这个作品,一共使用了7公斤的葵花籽。5年后,她再次创作艾未未的画像,这一次,她一共使用了20000颗葵花籽,并将作品命名为《睁开你的眼睛》(Open Your Eyes)。

Zhang Yimou – Socks and Pins 

During Red’s time in Shanghai, she also completed another portrait in one of the city’s iconic shikumen alleys. To depict the face of Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, Red used pins to piece together an array of monochromatic socks, which were then hung on bamboo poles much like how locals hang their laundry.


张艺谋,材料: 袜子和别针

在上海的时候,Red还在另一处标志性的石库门弄堂完成了另一幅肖像作品——中国著名导演张艺谋。Red用别针把一堆单色袜子拼凑在一起,然后像当地人晾衣服一样,挂在竹杆上。

Yao Ming – Basketball and Red Paint

Armed with a basketball and a pail of paint, Red bounced her way into creating a patterned portrait of Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming.


姚明,材料: 篮球和红色颜料

带着篮球和一桶颜料,Red 用篮球“拍”出中国篮球巨星姚明的画像。

Dato’ Lee Chong Wei – Shuttlecock Feathers

This high contrast profile of Malaysian Dato’ Lee Chong Wei, a World No. 1 professional badminton player, was put together with 1,800 shuttlecock feathers to celebrate his face off with Chinese player Lin Dan at the World Championships in Guangzhou.


拿督李宗伟,材料: 羽毛球的羽毛

为了描绘马来西亚的世界头号羽毛球选手李宗伟,Red用1800条羽毛球上的羽毛,拼贴出一幅高对比度的肖像作品,以纪念李宗伟和林丹在广州世界锦标赛上的对决。

Jay Chou – Coffee and Coffee Cups

Red’s portrait of Taiwanese pop megastar Jay Chou is one of her more symbolic works. “This project was inspired by the opening and closing lines in Jay Chou’s song ‘Secret.’ The opening line is about lifting a coffee cup from a saucer and the last line of the song is about autumn leaves and fragmented pieces.” She used hundreds of imperfect individual coffee stains to form Jay Chou’s portrait, likening them to the falling autumn leaves mentioned in “Secret.” The portrait took 12 hours to complete – Red said that coffee is one of her more temperamental mediums to date, as it was challenging to achieve the perfect consistency and required it to be applied in layers.


周杰伦,材料:咖啡和咖啡杯

Red为台湾流行巨星周杰伦创作的画像是她最著名的作品之一。“这个作品的灵感来自于周杰伦的歌曲《不能说的秘密》开头和结尾的歌词。歌曲开头是‘冷咖啡离开了杯垫’,而最后有关秋叶和碎片的歌词是‘飘落后才发现这幸福的碎片,要我怎么捡?’。“她用数百个形态各异的咖啡渍,描绘出周杰伦的画像,而咖啡渍代表了《不能说的秘密》中提到的秋天的落叶。这幅作品用了12个小时才完成。Red 说,咖啡是她目前使用过的创作媒介中最变幻无常的一种。因为很难获得完美的一致性,她往往需要反复多层印绘才能达到效果。

 

Aung San Suu Kyi – White Carnations and Red Food Dye

“I didn’t sleep the whole night thinking of how to capture Aung San Suu Kyi’s great aura, dedication, strength, determination, compassion, intelligence, courage, poise, and gracefulness in a portrait. I wanted a portrait that not only captured her political eminence but also her beauty and love for her father, and his for her.” Red experimented with flowers and food dye for an entire month before creating her portrait of the Burmese Nobel Prize winner.

 


昂山素季(Aung San Suu Kyi),材料: 白色康乃馨和红色食品染料

“创作这幅作品时,我一整夜没有睡觉,一直在思考,怎样才能在一幅肖像作品中,捕捉住昂山素季的非凡光环——她的奉献精神、坚强、坚定、慈悲、智慧、勇气、风度和优雅的气质。我希望这幅肖像作品不仅能体现她的政治地位,同时展现出她的美丽,以及她与父亲之间的爱。”Red先用鲜花和食物染料反复实验了整整一个月,才开始为缅甸诺贝尔奖得主昂山素季创作这幅肖像作品。

The Merlion – Disposable Bamboo Chopsticks and Fire

The crown jewel of Facebook’s Singapore-based office is giant wall mural consisting of 15,000 disposable chopsticks, which were layered and torched to reveal the country’s national icon overlooking some of Singapore’s most recognizable sights.


鱼尾狮,材料: 一次性竹筷和火

这幅用15000支一次性竹筷拼贴的巨型作品,被固定在Facebook的新加坡总部办公室的墙上。通过分层排列,用火焚烧上色,Red描绘了新加坡的著名标志和最知名的景点。

Teh Tarik Man – Tea Bags

Touted as a quintessential Malaysian everyday hero, the teh tarik man is a namesake of Red’s Southeast Asian upbringing. Teh Tarik means “pulled tea” in Malay and is a traditional beverage that is comprised of sweet and frothy milk tea. Over ten shades of brown and 20,000 tea bags were used – in the end, this homage to her homeland weighed a whopping 200 kilograms.


《拉茶人》,材料:茶包

拉茶人被视为代表马来西亚特色文化的“民间英雄”,同时也代表着Red的东南亚文化背景。“Teh Tarik“是马来语“拉茶”的意思,是当地一种传统奶茶饮料。这幅致敬她的家乡的作品一共使用了20000个茶包,形成 10多种深浅不一的棕色色调,重达200公斤。

Jackie Chan – Disposable Bamboo Chopsticks

To commemorate Hollywood legend Jackie Chan’s 60th birthday, Red collected 64,000 disposable chopsticks from around Zhejiang and in Beijing to create his portrait. The chopsticks were grouped together with string and placed in sequence along a metal frame, alongside 60 bamboo chopsticks holders that were intricately filled with skewers to form the Chinese word long, which is Jackie’s first name in Mandarin Chinese.


《成龙》,材料: 一次性竹筷

为了纪念传奇影星成龙的60岁生日,Red 在浙江和北京两地收集了64000支一次性筷子,创造了这一幅肖像作品。她用细绳将筷子捆在一起,在一个金属架上排列出成龙的肖像,又在旁边排列了60个竹制筷子架,里面装满了长竹签,组成成龙名字中的“龙”字。

Many of Red’s portraits have received international acclaim and widespread media attention, allowing her to put a spotlight on Asia-based figures through her art. Her works are influenced by both her Malaysian upbringing and her current surroundings. Her time in Shanghai even helped to shape her unique style by opening up her world to a plethora of readily available raw materials. Most recently, Red has created series of #flowerbombing collage style portraits, which celebrate an admirable group of women in arts and entertainment, including the likes of Kiko Mizuhara, Liu Wen, Michelle Obama, Emma Watson and Alicia Keys.


Red 的肖像作品备受国际赞誉,吸引了广泛的媒体关注,让她得以通过自己的艺术,致敬亚洲地区的著名人物。在马来西亚成长的经历和如今在上海的生活,都对她的作品产生了重要的影响,也正是在上海生活的期间,她形成了自己的独特风格,因为这里有大量的现成材料。最近,Red创作了#flowerbombing系列的拼贴风格肖像作品,致敬在艺术和娱乐行业有着杰出成就的女性,其中包括水原希子、刘雯、 Michelle Obama、Emma Watson和 Alicia Keys。

Website: redhongyi.com
Facebook: ~/redhongyi
Instagram: @redhongyi

 

Contributor: Whitney Ng
Images Courtesy of Red Hong Yi


网站: redhongyi.com
脸书: ~/redhongyi
Instagram: @redhongyi

 

Contributor: Whitney Ng
图片由Red Hong Yi提供