A Malaysian artist Hong Yi, nicknamed “Red,” created a portrait of a man pouring teh tarik, a hot milk tea drink popular in the country.
It took the artist two months to make this work of art, which was on display at the end of January in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum was taking place. As the artist explained her process on YouTube:
The teabags were stained by steeping the bags in hot water — the lesser and hotter the water, the more they were stained – and the darker tones were stained with brown food dye. All these bags were stapled and attached onto tiles of wiremesh, then hung off a wooden frame.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Meet the 2025 Women of the Year
- The Harsh Truth About Disability Inclusion
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com