It’s bad to play with your food, you say? Malaysian artist and photographer Hong Yi would respectfully disagree. When you see her work, you’ll find yourself questioning that long-held belief.
Yi (or “Red”) developed a 31-day food-based project, creating landscapes, portraits, and more using only food. The parameters were simple: she only allowed herself to use food for the images, and the background had to be a plain white plate. After making the food art, she photographed it for posterity.
Yi photographing one of her creations.
After graduating with a degree in architecture, Yi began creating portraits of famous people using non-traditional media. She then branched out from there. In an interview with designboom, she explains that she keeps herself inspired by trying to “see joy and fun in ordinary, everyday items that I come across, and to paint and create objects as I feel and imagine them, not just as I see them.” Besides learning to work on a small scale (in contract to someone with an architectural background), she became a great cook as a side effect. “I’ve learned to slice, dice, stir, boil… who would have thought I’d need that to do art!”
“I Found Four Dogs in my Oreos!” Day 10, made from Oreos.
“Campbell’s Tomato Soup” Day 11, made from ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard and oyster sauce.
“Giant Squid Attack!” Day 12, made from squid and squid ink.
“Banksy on my Plate!” Day 13, made from nori and apple.
“Arctic Melting,” Day 14, made from melting ice cream pop.
Yi has no shortage of ideas.
This pastoral scene is made out of cucumbers!
This cheerful owl is made from red onions.
This one was created for Valentine’s Day and features grape tomatoes.
The fruit used to create this is, aptly, a dragonfruit.
Yi already created quite a lot of images, and the project appears to be going past its original 31-day span. You can check out her work as it emerges at her Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as her YouTube channel to see her in action.
