IN an effort to demonstrate the manifold effects of global warming, Time magazine has commissioned Malaysian artist Red Hong Yi for its latest cover.
It took Red and her team two weeks to complete the artwork that is “part sculpture, part performance art”, according to Time magazine.
They built a 7.5- by 10-foot world map made up of 50,000 green-tipped matchsticks, after which she sets the artwork alight. The matchsticks were set upon a board at different heights to resemble trees.
It’s a powerful reminder of how the climate crisis spares no one in the world.
Describing her process, Red, in an Instagram post, said her team “spent two weeks sticking matchsticks non-stop for 8 hours a day, and then we watched the piece burn down in two minutes.”
The team had used fire retardant paint on both sides of the board so as not to torch the entire piece.
Red received her Master of Architecture degree from the University of Melbourne and had worked as an architect. She started pursuing art full-time about nine years ago when a video she made using a basketball to paint a portrait of NBA star Yao Ming went viral.
“When I approach my art projects, I think like an architect. Most of the people on my team are architecture graduates,” Red told Time. “It’s very planned and I think I approach it in a kind of a designer-esque way.”
Red’s work has been exhibited at H Queens in Hong Kong, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, World Economic Forum in Davos, Anchorage Museum in Alaska and JP Morgan Chase Bank. – The Vibes, April 16, 2021
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