Portrait of a Lady - in flowers

Artist Red Hong Yi has created a living portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi with 2000 white carnations and red dye mixed with water.

CARNATIONS may not be the most beautiful flower, but one artist has turned 2000 blossoms into a stunning floral portrait of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Hong Yi, a Shanghai-based architect who moonlights as an installation artist has a history of creating art from everyday objects such as basketballs, coffee cup stains, books and now flowers.

Her portrait of the Nobel Peace Prize winner is made up of 2000 carnations with stems cut on an angle and placed in small plastic cups with varying amounts of red food dye and water.

Hong Yi's final product, a floral portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi only lasted a few days due to the heat. Picture: Hong Yi/ redhongyi.com

"The flowers took 40 hours to absorb the dye for the image to emerge. However it took me about a month to experiment how capillary action of dye in flowers work," Ms Yi told News Ltd.

The overall effect is a stunningly detailed portrait in which each flower mimics a pixel, much like a digital photograph.

The portrait was inspired by the film The Lady which chronicles the life and political struggles of Aung San Suu Kyi, Ms Yi said, adding the idea of using flowers also came from seeing the movie.

Artist Hong Yi created the floral tribute for the foyer of the Sutera Magellan Golf and Country Club on Jnauary 24, 2013. Picture: Hong Yi/ redhongyi.com

"I wanted a portrait that not only captures ASSK's political eminence but also her beauty and love for her father, and his for her, and the idea of using flowers as the main medium was born," Ms Yi wrote on her blog.

The flower cups were set up across an area 3.5 metres by 4.5 metres in the foyer of the Sutera Magellan Golf and Country Club in Sabah in Malaysia on January 24th and only last five days due to the heat.  

"It was also the first piece that I was more nervous about because the materials I was working with, fresh white carnations and food dye, were more intractable and subject to many factors such as absorption rate of the dye at different concentrations, the type of dye, the pureness of the water and the tendency of the deeper-colored flowers to wilt faster. I was also concerned that people wouldn't recognize The Lady but most did, although some people, including tourists, didn't know who ASSK is," the 25 year-old wrote.

Visit redhongyi.com  to find out more about Ms Yi's unique object-based art.

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