Kirin HengBrack Editor Kirin Heng travelled to Hong Kong and visited Bellini Yu of i-dArt (“i do different art”) at Tung Wah Group Hospital, where the latter coordinates an arts education programme under i-dArt for people with different abilities. As Bellini very generously gave more than three hours of her time being interviewed and showing the location and artworks of the programme, this interview extract comprises four parts to provide a clear overview of her work at i-dArt. Part 1 of 4 serves as an introduction to the whole programme, while the following Parts 2-3 are about the artistic evolution of three of her students from the cohort of 2013. THIS CONVERSATION IS PART OF THE ARTIST-WRITER PAIR SERIES.
This excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity and is part of a longer feature in BrackMag #4 The Energy Issue. Purchase the issue here.
This kind of marker he used is unique (…) for outdoor graffiti. But we wanted to provide this kind of marker because we found out that this kind of drawing this pen is much better for this visual effect. These are his unique materials for his creation.
[On artist Leung Iat-hong’s innovation of his own method using graffiti pens and pure imagination.]
B: The third artist I would like to introduce you to is Iat-hong, the old man sitting there just now [gestures]. He [has] developed his own way of drawing. I can show you more.
K: It looks a bit Impressionist.
J: Like Starry Night.
B: This kind of marker he used is unique—it’s not very commonly sold in stationary stores. It’s for outdoor graffiti. But we wanted to provide this kind of marker because we found out that this kind of drawing this pen is much better for this visual effect; the way he draws broken lines while also covering many layers with every line. These are his unique materials for his creation.
He found this very unique way of creation [by] himself. Usually he has no references for his drawings, and I am very impressed by how he handles the background objects. All are broken lines, same materials, same technique, but you can very easily identify what is the object and what is its background.
Even though he did not do any colouring, you would still find it very colourful… You (would) wonder why this is yellow and its background is black, why he coloured this and not the nose. So this is very interesting work for us.
The artpiece Iat-hong works in a close-up photograph.