Hong-yi Zhuang: “We might not all speak the same language, but we can all read flowers”

Interview with ZHUANG HONG-YI

Do you remember the moment when you realized that you wanted to fully dedicate yourself to being an artist?

What many people do not know about my life is that I immigrated to the Netherlands back in 1992 already with only $1,000 USD to pursue my artist career together with my wife Lu Luo who joined two years later. With no prior experience abroad and all the language barriers that came with it at the time, we simply committed our lives to art even if it meant leaving our old ones behind in China as we both knew that art was our true passion.

How do you compare the two very different artistic terrains and the influence they have on you?

The only world that I knew until 1992 was the one in China which was – and is – of course quite different from Europe. What influences me the most within this scope is the sense of finding patience and calmness (i.e., Buddhism) in our lives where everything is developing at an unprecedented pace. On a similar level, the Western art movements like Impressionism and Expressionism along with contemporary trends in all forms of art (i.e., literature, fashion, design, etc.) have definitely influenced me to be more bold and more fresh in many aspects of my works.

Those floral motifs symbolize universal prosperity and optimism. What does it take to develop your
unique style? How would you describe the evolution of your work?

I have this large book about my monumental works dating all the way back to 1982 up until 2007 that show my development as an artist in the earlier years. During the early times, my art was mainly conceptual, experimental, and abstract in an attempt to find what art meant to me. The image of the vast flower fields in the Netherlands and the thought of it having an important meaning in China was always at the back of my mind.
However, it was only around the year 2000 when I first started to use the original rice paper flower in my paintings. It took me another five years (i.e., 2005) to make the first prototype of my flowerbed and it took me until 2012 to develop it into something that looks like what it is today. Therefore, if you ask me what it takes to develop my particular style, my answer is simply patience, creativity, and perseverance.

What is the best part about creating art using pieces of painted rice paper? Can you tell us about the
process of making your work? What do you think is especially important to create a good artwork?

My favourite part about using pieces of painted rice paper is the fact that I have so many options to play around with them! I can use them in various folded states, in countless colour palettes, and in endless compositions to display my emotions on canvas.
The process of making my work starts during my everyday walk as I always keep my eyes open for any form of inspiration: sounds, colours, animals, sunsets, plants, people, shadows, buildings, etc. Whenever see something inspirational, I then take a picture of it on my iPhone so I can look back at it once standing in front of a canvas. With the flowerbed series, the patterns and the colours are designed to best display this feeling of the moments of inspiration. One of my favourite colour palettes is blue on one side which represents the ocean and warm colours on the other side which represents the horizon.

Regarding the landscape series, these works are more characterised by a combination of gestural
impasto and folded rice paper. I let loose of any thought and paint whatever emotion I am feeling in the
moment itself; I never make a plan beforehand and simply get the inspiration from the process itself.
The most important thing to making a good artwork in my opinion is to be unique and genuine; many
artists nowadays try to copy each other or whatever is trendy on the internet.

What are the essential things in your atelier that you cannot miss?

The most essential things in my atelier would be the buckets of paint, the wide variety of brushes, boxes
filled with rice paper flowers, and of course my white overall.

Which piece created by you has given you the most satisfaction? What are you doing when you’re not
creating? What (other) hobbies do you have?

I don’t have a favourite piece but one that I recently made was Meteorite (250x200cm). Within this
piece, you can recognise a beating heart and a growing tree of flowers that represent love and
prosperity; the core message I aspire to share with my viewers. Apart from painting, I also love to cook
for people; the kitchen to me is where I can use all different ingredients to create something special
which is similar to painting.