TROPICANA MAGAZINE Jan-Feb 2020 #128 The Love Issue

What struck me is that you have to
forge on and not be too mindful of
the naysayers as you go on with what
kick-started that passion. I tell myself
that I cannot take it too personally
and my work should not dictate my
worth and my value.
This article first appeared in Prestige Magazine June 2019
a married woman on sacrificing her career for family.
Red has also dedicated one artwork to the #MeToo
movement which has gained traction over the year,
incorporating symbolisms of two rabbits and a rice
bowl inside the vase.
“In China, the #MeToo hashtag is censored so
to get around that, women in China have resorted to
using emojis of bunny heads and rice bowl to expose
sexual harassment,” Red elaborates, pointing out that
that the term rice bunny is pronounced as “mi tu”
in Chinese. When asked if she has ever personally
encountered a similar experience given her exposure
in the art world, she responds with a no.
“As I was working on this project, I was reflecting
on my career and my assistants asked me the same
question. My clients and collectors have been really
respectful but I think society may be the cause behind
what hinders women and it may even come from within
ourselves. Male artists are featured more predominantly
compared to female artists because family becomes an
issue for women so they tend to hold themselves back.
That makes me wonder, in today’s society, what would
a healthy partnership look like?”
Immersing herself in her art for the past five
years, the artist has now taken on a different path,
with the intention to create more than just beautiful
artwork. “I want my artwork to have more of a
meaning instead of creating something that is just
aesthetically pleasing. I want people to relate and
interpret the pieces by themselves as some of them
are quite abstract. I want my pieces to tap into my
heritage of being a Chinese and be inspired by my
culture and my roots,” she says earnestly.
As part of her quest to find greater meaning
within her work, Red dived deep into her past and
discovered that her granduncle was a talented artist
who served during the communist revolution. He was
hired to be an artist to create propaganda posters for
the revolution. “I saw his artwork and told him that
I wanted to learn from him but he refused to paint
anymore as it brought back scarred memories. The
notion that he was going to throw his paintbrushes
away came to me and I thought hard about it before
deciding that I will use other materials to express my
work instead of the conventional way of painting.
That made me want to express things like culture,
family and history through my art,” she sums up
deftly.
81 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 | TM