SK
Could you tell us how your art journey started?
RHY
As far as I can remember, I’ve always loved and enjoyed art. My parents were very encouraging whenever I drew, my mom had shown me works from famous artists like Van Gogh and Picasso, and my dad taught me how to sketch. My parents weren’t artists, my father was a structural engineer, and my mother was a banker, but they appreciated art.
So, when it came time to choose a major for my university studies, art was already in the back of my mind, and I wanted to get into animation and draw for Disney and such, but I remember we sat down and talked about how [an art career] would be really tough, and we didn’t have a reference or any professional that we knew that could tell us about the field. So with my dad being an engineer, and I wanted something more creative, naturally I turned to architecture as a major. I went to the University of Melbourne and graduated with my master’s degree [in architecture], and subsequently went to China to work for an Australian firm called HASSELL.
Throughout architecture school, I didn’t really think that art was an option. I thought that “this would be it,” that I would be an architect full-time. But what really gave me the push to do art was when I turned 25. I graduated when I was 24, and when I turned 25, I had a quarter-life crisis of sorts. (laughs) I reflected on what I wanted to achieve back when I was a kid, which was to do art. I had told myself that when I was 20 I should have a [art] por!olio, but at that time I had nothing to show. So, I decided that while I was working full-time as an architect, I should grow the art side of my portfolio a bit, just for fun.
SK
Did that push you into doing art full-time?
RHY
No, not the career side. It was more the act of doing art, and the realisation that time was going to go by and me constantly telling myself that “I want to do this” [and not acting on it] made me realise that it doesn’t work, because I can have this dream for as long as I want to, but if I don’t do anything I won’t get anywhere. That realisation of time and not doing anything about it kicked me into actually doing something about it, but the goal wasn’t to get a career out of it, it was just to get things done.
When I moved to China, everything was fresh, and I knew that after 6 months to a year of living there, everything would look not that new or refreshing anymore. So, I wanted to capture that excitement by journaling and writing, as well as making artwork as I go.
SK
How do you think those experiences as well as your architectural education shaped your art?
RHY
I think architecture gave me an appreciation for materials, for using objects and really liking to touch materials, and from there imagine and plan what it would look like when you bring it up to scale. I think if I never studied architecture, skill-wise, my work might have just stuck to conventional painting materials and canvases, and there’s nothing wrong with it! But I didn’t begin with that because it was not part of my training, my training was in studying floor plans and CAD-ing, looking and sourcing for materials, so I really began with that.
The first few portraits I did were very much like “this is the concept, this is my site, these are my parameters, these are my dimensions” and all that, so I was thinking more like a trained architecture graduate. Slowly over the years, I’ve tried to get away from that a little bit but at the same time use that as my strength. After more than 10 years into it, I’ve realised that a lot of artists talk about the emotions [in the artwork] and it doesn’t have to be practical, and so the limitations are different where they don’t have to use the space, so for me, it comes from a different place now.
SK
I like how your art has hints of the architectural framework where you expressed your first few artworks with certain architectural jargon. There’s a saying that says “architecture is the mother of all art”, as someone with experience in both, what are your thoughts on this saying?
RHY
I’ve heard of that phrase before, and I wouldn’t say it’s the mother of all art. I feel like if you ask any person in the creative industry, they would think that [their industry] is the mother of all art maybe. Everything is complex in a sense when you go deeper into and it’s not as easy as it seems, and there are a lot of layers to dig into.
I would say architecture is the appreciation and knowing how to deal with space and materials and tools that are given to you at a point in time and to be able to design it in a clever way that looks visually interesting or appealing or useful to the people involved. Whereas art is not practical.
There’s a saying by Oscar Wilde who said that “all art is quite useless”, and it’s really just an object that you keep somewhere. But I also think that art makes you think and makes you ponder, and it can even transform the way society thinks about something you see in propaganda posters for an extreme example. You see art and you know people expressing about the climate for example, and it makes you think. So, I think each of them has its own merits.
SK
Speaking of art as being an expression, you have a wide variety of expressions in your art portfolio, from the materials to use to using performance art in your exhibitions like in your Memebank exhibition. Could you tell me more about that?
RHY
Memebank was a turning point for my practice because it was the first self-initiated, self-funded project, and I am quite passionate to talk about it. (laughs) The first few artworks like the Zhang Yimou project are personally funded, and when I le” [architecture] in 2013, for the last 7-8 years I have sustained myself primarily through taking up a lot of commissioned/commercial projects, but I’ve always wanted to push my artworks and personal pieces.
So last year Memebank came about when Covid lockdown restrictions were li”ing again and everything was kind of paused and halted, I told myself “OK, maybe this is the right time.” Instead of waiting for a client to approve a project, I should just put my savings into releasing my project, something that I am passionate about and something I wanted to talk about. And that time it was really about the state of the world in terms of money, because I was thinking “Oh my gosh, we’re possibly going through a recession and all that, why do we go through recessions and inflations? Why is my coffee so expensive now?” My partner Joe is in the finance industry and he was explaining to me about central governments printing money and all that kind of thing, and I just went “Oh my gosh, I never asked these kinds of questions.” I am in my 30s and I didn’t know that this is how banks work, and that’s how governments work. So, I researched the very first paper money that was printed and it was done in China through a metal printing plate and that just fascinated me. I was like “Oh my God, how did they make this plate?” I think that’s where my fascination with the material comes in through doing research and going back to how people first needed certain things and then had to reinvent them. So essentially the inspiration for Memebank came from the first printing plate in China, and we made six printing plates to “print” our currency.
SK
Yes, I saw the plates in person and I really enjoyed them. I particularly enjoyed the puns.
RHY
SK
I also saw that the plates were also part of the NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Did you set out wanting it to be an NFT or did that come later?
RHY
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(laughs) Yes! We were quite cheeky about it, and we were telling a select few, “hey, we have a little secret at the end of the exhibition, if you stay on, you’ll see it.”
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I feel like this is a huge topic by itself. (laughs) I got in on Instagram quite early in 2012 or 2013, and my following grew from there, but back then the landscape was quite different. I remember in 2015 I was a little bit offended when I heard someone telling me that “oh, you’re just an Instagram artist,” and I was like “whoa, well does that make me not that legit?” But today everyone even the biggest artists and architects is on Instagram because it’s kind of like your por!olio already. So I think social media is a great pla!orm to have. It’s free, you can put it up and people can look for you, so I think use it to your advantage. But at the same time, I think why I had that criticism during 2015 because I was kind of confused about what to put on my socials. I think creatives can fall into the trap of making art for Instagram and it shouldn’t be that way, you should make your art and then post it on Instagram. I’m very careful about the way I curate my socials because I want them to show my work well, so I’m careful about which brands I work with as well as what I’ve put there.
SK
You’ve always had a strong message with your artwork and you always share your works online as you mentioned. Do you ever worry about your art being misunderstood or misused by blatant resharing?
RHY
SK
How do you deal with criticisms towards your art?
RHY
It doesn’t really bother me really. Honestly, I feel like I’ve grown so much over the years that I’m like, “OK, I can’t please everyone, and I’m not there to please everyone also.” I would love to show people that art can be anything but I’m not there to lecture or anything.
I don’t think it really bothers me when it comes to criticism anymore. It’s OK if someone doesn’t like my work, it’s OK if they think it’s bad, everyone has their own opinions. And I think I have changed as well. I used to go to art shows and I used to think, “oh, I could do that” or “this sucks,” but now I think it’s not a matter of good or bad anymore, it’s more about the artists’ long career and what have they done. It’s like if Elton John had one bad song but he has such a respected career, I wouldn’t hold him to just that one song.
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That’s really interesting and leads very well into your latest exhibition, “Once Upon a Longtang” that’s being held at the National Art Gallery. Could you tell me more about the exhibition and your inspiration behind it?
RHY
Balai Seni came to me in April last year and I was really honoured that they had chosen three artists to take over this empty space for three months each. I was supposed to be the first one starting in May, but I didn’t have anything that I wanted to talk about at the time, so I pushed to be the last one. Then I think in August, my brother who was working in Shanghai was about to come back to Malaysia, and he said, “Hey, do you know that our relative’s house is going to be torn down soon?” And this house was smack in the middle of Shanghai, kind of like being near Pavilion in KL, and it was about to be torn down. Pre-Covid I actually had a residency to go back to Shanghai to document all these old houses that were going to be torn down, but I couldn’t go back because of Covid. A”er hearing the news I immediately thought that my exhibition should be about reconstructing my memories of that place and being able to create it in a way so that people here would be able to view what I feel about the place.
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You’ve used bamboo as part of the structure of your exhibition. Could you tell me more about that?
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I think change is inevitable, but I think giving respect to the place and designing something though”ully and tastefully is very, very important for me, and I think if [the development] is given thought and done respec”ully, I think it’s OK.
SK
RHY
Yeah, I don’t know about another tall structure in the city right now. I think I was in Venice and Europe and you could still see old buildings being restored and that’s beautiful to see and you still get to see the history of the place. But I understand with China developing really fast it’s a whole different situation that they’re in. China has tried to restore some of the old Longtangs and keep them as a heritage, but they’re few and far between. They’ve mostly restored it partly for the
heritage value and partly as a tourist attraction. The Longtang that I’ve stayed in was a little bit “rawer” like things were falling apart. But another one that my relatives had was kept because there was a famous poet that grew up there.
SK
RHY
Yeah, I’m also not quite sure how to feel about it. It’s very sad to see these kinds of things happen. But I think if it’s done in a more considerate manner, even though it’s sad, it’s more acceptable.
SK
RHY
I don’t really know much about the Malaysian art scene because I don’t know it very well until I moved to KL in 2020. But I think it’s really encouraging to see a lot of really talented young creatives like the people in my team. I formed my team by just posting on social media and they sent in their portfolios, and there are some really good ones and that’s really encouraging to see. I really hope that they would be able to make it work for them.
I think there are a lot of creatives working for someone, like my team’s working for me now, which I think is good to have that constant salary coming in until something takes off for yourself. I know a lot of them to want to start their own studio/freelance jobs and they want to work for themselves, so I do hope it works out for them.
I genuinely hope that Malaysia would have enough of not just facilities but also funding and support to make that happen for young creatives. I do think that there are a lot more options compared to before largely because the internet has made a lot of things borderless and opened up a lot more opportunities. But I also know from experience that a big part of being able to make a creative career sustainable is to know the business side of things and that’s something that I have learned myself in the past ten years.
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Red Hong Yi has successfully captured the attention of the local and global art scene, and she is set to make more red waves in her new red era. Catch her latest exhibition “Once Upon a Longtang”happening at the National Art Gallery from 22nd December 2022 to 22nd March 2023 from 9am to 5pm. In the meantime, readers can follow Red Hong Yi on Instagram @redhongyi to keep up with her latest artworks and happenings.
