Penang-based illustrator and Riso printmaker Zhao Hong Low, aka Inking Liox, creates a large-scale flower-shaped risograph wall piece for a collaborative Malaysian print exhibition, narrating the mythic rebirth of Nezha across five assembled A3 sheets in four colours.
Nezha, the Third Lotus Prince of Chinese mythology, is a figure of transformation and resilience: a young deity who sacrifices himself and is reborn through lotus flowers, returning as something greater. For Zhao Hong Low, asked to interpret the theme of Blossom for a collaborative Risograph exhibition, the connection was immediate.
Chronicles of Nezha is a 70 by 70 centimetre wall piece, assembled from five A3 Riso-printed sheets in four colours on Summer Brilliance 150gsm paper. The composition takes a flower shape, each petal depicting a key moment in Nezha’s story: his parents’ devotion, his clash with Ao Bing, his sacrifice. The rebirth sits at the centre where the petals converge. “The lotus is already Nezha’s symbol of renewal,” Zhao Hong says. “Building the composition in that same shape felt like the right way to let the myth speak through the structure of the work rather than just the images.” The format and the narrative mirror each other, which is what makes the piece cohere.
The work was made as Inkling Studio’s contribution to Riso: A Beautiful Mess, a collaborative exhibition at Bukit Jalil Tsutaya Bookstore in Kuala Lumpur, bringing together three Malaysian Riso studios: Inkling Studio, Hasuriso and Bang Bang Zine. Each studio was given the same flower-shaped template and the shared theme of Blossom to interpret in their own way. “Working with a shared template is its own kind of constraint and invitation,” Zhao Hong says. “It pushes you to find what’s specific to your practice within a common frame.” The exhibition ran from November 2024 to January 2025.
Zhao Hong Low is an illustrator, comic artist, art teacher and Risograph printmaker based in Penang, Malaysia. He is the founder of Inkling Studio and teaches at Inkling Classroom, mentoring emerging creators.
Website: theinkling.studio Instagram: @inkingliox
Chronicles of Nezha, 2024. Four-colour Risograph, Summer Brilliance 150gsm, 70 × 70cm. Assembled from 5 × A3 sheets. Illustrated by Zhao Hong Low. Riso printed by Inkling Studio. Photography: Jia Hang Tan. Exhibited at Riso: A Beautiful Mess, Bukit Jalil Tsutaya Bookstore, 1 November 2024 to 5 January 2025.
