Sticking to art

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Take a walk in Pek Kio and, if you are lucky, you might spot an elderly man creating portraits out of fallen twigs on the ground.

All it takes is a gust of wind to undo his artistic arrangements, but Mr Y.L. Thien, 78, does not mind. "If the wind blows it away, I can still create another one," he says in Mandarin, bent over a work in progress - a portrait of Hongniang, a maidservant from a Tang-dynasty tale.

Mr Thien, who lives in a rental flat in the estate, has been making art on the ground near a carpark in Owen Road since last year.

The retired hawker started doing twig art after he saw sand art on television.

He was bored at home after retiring due to asthma, and noticed there were many twigs scattered around his neighbourhood. And so he decided to "jiu di qu cai", or work with materials obtained from his environment.

Besides twigs, he also picks up fragments of rock and pieces of colourful plastic and incorporates them into his portraits - bits of rock for the eyes, for example, or a semi-circular piece of plastic for the lips.

His subjects often look like characters from Chinese period dramas.

Sometimes, their portraits come with captions "written" with twigs. These spell out famous names, ranging from Chinese empress Wu Zetian of the Zhou and Tang dynasties to Hong Kong actress Fung Bo Bo.

The eyes are the hardest part to get right, he says, adding that a single portrait takes about an hour to complete.

Mr Thien was born in Singapore, but returned to his ancestral home in Fujian, China, with his parents when he was around seven years old. Later, he joined a Gaojia opera troupe, in which he performed and worked on stage sets.

At the age of 18, he came back to Singapore and made a living selling ban mian.

He retains a slight Chinese accent and sometimes switches to Hokkien in conversation. "Li xiang bu li qiang (you can leave your home town, but not your accent)", he says.

He often heads to hair salons - by foot, bus or bicycle - to look at portraits of people in various hairstyles. These pictures help inform his work.

Aside from twig art, he enjoys watching cooking and art videos online.

"A person might be capable, but there are always others who are better. You need to keep exploring, thinking of how to make a dish tastier or arrange the twigs better. The poise, the way the eyes look."

When The Sunday Times met him two weeks ago, several onlookers stopped to watch him in action. Some took videos of him on their smartphones, while others offered words of praise and encouragement.

One of them was taxi driver Lim Tiong Hiap, 56. "His work is very pretty. At first, I thought he was gathering twigs, then I realised he was arranging them into portraits," he says in Mandarin.

"It's environmentally friendly," he adds with a chuckle.

Mr Thien rose to Internet fame last year, when people started sharing photos of his twig art on social media. A post on Facebook last month garnered more than 63,000 likes.

He says: "When people praise me, I feel happy. It gives me the confidence to keep doing it. I'd also like them to give me some criticism, so I can improve."

Asked if he is married or has any children, Mr Thien says no.

"Life is short. The most important things in life are health and freedom, not being bound by other people. So long as you do not do anything illegal and don't harm others, that is fine."

He continues to draw inspiration from his surroundings, heading to Chinatown occasionally to look at murals, and depicting other subjects such as birds in his art.

"An artist should explore in different directions."

 

Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Reproduced with permission.

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