A little love is a crush.
After my first big “love” piece was sold, I missed it. I decided to make another love piece for myself.
So I got these vintage matches from my friend Tanya. The matches are much shorter and their colors varied. The love piece is also much smaller, canvas size approximately 6″ x 11″. This photograph was taken by Marta Sasinowska.
This pair of sneakers were made for my dear friend and roommate, Chris Hales, AKA DJ Tapedek, AKA Mookie. He passed away this early Spring.
In Chinese culture, we burn paper money so the spirit can take these notes with them to the afterlife. These papers are called joss paper. In contemporary culture, they have included paper cell phone, paper credit cards and paper boats.
I made a pair of sneakers for Chris to take with. He loves his sneakers and he always have the perfect pair to go with his fly outfit. He alway looked good. These sneakers were in his Tribute show entitled “Tapedek: The Afters Cool Show” at CAD on April 9th, 2010. One of the pair was burned at the end of the show with an intimate group of his friends.
Chris you will be missed.
This is the third piece of my matches burn series. Since I am born in the year of the dragon and since I am a girl, I tend to see myself as the mythical creature of the phoenix (female version of the dragon in Chinese culture). It is a bird that is born out of its ashes, representing rebirth and transformation.
The size of this piece is 24″ x 22″ and was in the International Women’s Day Show at CAD on March 8th, 2010.
Made this in time for Valentine’s Day. This piece is made up of approximately 2,500 match sticks and took about a total of 24 hours (not in one sitting of course). The board is a reclaimed art board or plywood. It was previously used as a glueing surface. The type is hand drawn. Some see love on fire as passion, I, myself see this as the destructive and manic side of love.
This match stick dollar sign art was made for the current Chicago Art Department $200 exhibition. This is a collaboration between Nathan and I. I first wanted to make art with balsa sticks, specifically a skeletal framed apple. This idea came from my architecture model making days. I love making models out of sticks. However, now that I am out of school and out of work, my resources are limited and balsa wood sticks can get expensive. As an alternative, Nathan suggested that I use match sticks. They can be found at Home Depot, 750 count for approximately $4. Thus I began making things out of matches. The first few were apple and letters, to be spelled out into words. Every time when I finish making one, we badly wanted to burn it immediately. This first finished 7″ x 9.25″, match sticks on poplar piece is called Temptation. I actually made two, one for the show and another for us to burn. We took photos of the burning as a visual tease for the unburn piece. For me, the value of $200 is a temptation. It is Nathan’s temptation of blowing it all away one night at the strip club.
