Location

MIT Media Lab, E14-633

Description

Join artist "Red" Hong Yi as she describes her creative process of finding and creating the beautiful and unusual with everyday objects. She will also share about her newest interactive artwork being made in collaboration with Jie Qi. This piece will explore the materiality of drinking straws and LED lights, which will be exhibited at the Media Lab.
"Red" Hong Yi is a Malaysian artist with a background in architecture known for creating art using everyday unconventional materials. Inspired by her experience in Shanghai, Red discovered wholesale markets and their assortment of goods which she turned into portraits of renowned personalities such as Yao Ming painted with a basektball, Jay Chou with coffee cup stains, Aung San Suu Kyi with dyed carnations and Ai Weiwei with sunflower seeds. The volume of materials for her pieces alludes to the globalization and mass production in Asia. She documents her work through videos and photos on social media platforms which have been viewed by millions globally.
Among her clients are Facebook, Airbnb, Google, Samsung, Nike, Hewlett Packett, AT&T and Jackie Chan, who commissioned Red to create a portrait of himself made of more than 60 thousand chopsticks for his 60th birthay. Red presented at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos where she showcased a piece that reflected cultural elements of her country Malaysia.

Host/Chair: Jie Qi