KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 26 (Sin Chew Daily) — Malaysian contemporary artist Red Hong Yi is creating public awareness on social issues through her artwork.

After creating a series of portraits using different ingredients on basketball player Yao Ming, singer Jay Chou, film star Jackie Chan, artist Ai Weiwei and others, Red began to incorporate social elements into her artwork.

"I hope my artwork offers social significance," she said.

Red said she spent long hours researching and understanding the relevant issues first.

"I do not want to start my work without adequate information. I want to know the topic in details," she added.

For a piece of artwork, Red spends an average of two to three months – one month to plan and research, another month or two to collect the materials and create the artwork.

Often called "the artist who paints without a paintbrush", Red shot to fame in 2012 when she used a basketball and red paint to create a portrait of retired NBA star Yao Ming.

Subsequently the artist from Sabah quit her job as an architect in Shanghai, China to be a full-time artist.

For the past one year, her work mainly centered on climate change and racial discrimination to create public awareness.

Her latest artwork was on climate change which was featured on the cover of the latest issue of Time magazine.

Working with a team of six members, she used 50,000 green-tipped matchsticks to create a world map.

The green matchsticks symbolizing trees were then set alight to highlight how climate change could affect and destroy our world.

Red said she sent her collection of artwork to Time magazine three years ago.

The magazine then invited her to participate in the production of he magazine's front cover.

"The theme was decided by the magazine. It was planning a special issue on climate change and I agreed to take up the project since it is a global issue," she said.

She thought about global warming and rising temperatures. She related it to fire and then thought about matchstick. The green-tipped matchsticks represent the trees.

Her production team found a matchstick factory willing to produce green-tipped matchsticks instead of the usual brown-tipped matchsticks to be used for the project.

In the past, Red used ingredients such as rice, coffee capsules, coffee stains and others for her artwork.

She came back to Malaysia from the United States last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.