The unique aesthetics of corroded and oxidized metal is seen as a hallmark feature in Yeoh Kean Thai’s work. The portrayal of rust calls to attention for the conservation of the global environment, where natural landscape is corrupted by human development and intervention. Here, the artist depicts an old pressing iron with great detail and precision, executed with treatment of layers to enhance the texture of rust. A graduate of Kuala Lumpur College of Art (1989 – 1992), Yeoh Kean Thai has garnered international recognition through prestigious awards, including the Phillip Morris Art Award in 1997, the Freeman Fellowship in 2008, the same year he exhibited at the Beijing Olympics and the Commonwealth Award - International Art Residency. He has been creating works in relation to metal and rust ever since he won the Phillip Morris award in 1997. The award-winning piece was tediously completed in less than a year. Having to research on the oxidation process and progression of rust, he patiently experimented and monitored the decomposition while cutting, sculpting and composing the metal pieces with only regular pliers and his own bare hands. He was also the first artist from Malaysia to have work featured during New York’s Asian Art Week in 2008. His solo exhibitions included Code Red, Action to Neutralise (2011), Crossing (2008) and Links (2007). He has participated in a number of group exhibitions namely Truth & Fiction Are Not Strangers, Tribes Gallery, New York, United States of America (2011); Asian Overview Roma, Villa De Santis, Rome, Italy (2009); Paths of Thought, Gallery Il Ramo d’oro, Naples, Italy (2008) and Tashkent Biennale International Exhibition, Uzbekistan (2005).