Portrait Made of Socks by Hong Yi

Hong Yi is a young Malaysian artist who “likes to paint, but not with a paintbrush.” Instead, she uses all kinds of unconventional objects like coffee-cup stains to produce a phenomenal portrait of Taiwanese musician Jay Chou.

This time she has created a portrait of a famous Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, by hanging hundreds of socks from a bamboo stick on an old residential alleyway.

“When I first moved to Shanghai, I stumbled upon an old residential alleyway and saw bamboo sticks poking out of windows with laundry hanging onto them, waving in the air. To me, that was incredibly beautiful”, she said.

Hong Yi ended up using 750 pairs of socks “because shirts were too big and expensive”, but not before piquing the curiosity of the local residents who gave her a helping hand.