Marvel at Tomohiro Okazaki’s Feature-Length Montage of Matches Performing Optical Tricks

One recognizable everyday object is given the spotlight in Tomohiro Okazaki’s painstaking yet playful stop-motion animation. His new video features more than an hour of meticulously staged optical gymnastics using matches (previously), from simple balancing acts to hypnotic transformations in which the wooden sticks and red tops interact with words and materials like paper or acrylic. As the montage progresses, Okazaki’s compositions become increasingly distorted, stretching the imagination through hundreds of uncanny scenarios.

See more the artist’s work on YouTube and Instagram.

A still from a stop-motion animation video of matches moving around and performing tricks. This image shows several matches on a wooden surface with round photos of matches on wooden surfaces to trick the eye into which surface is "real."

All images © Tomohiro Okazaki

A gif from a stop-motion animation video of matches moving around and performing tricks, showing three matches that appear to be in the middle of a tug-o-war game.

A still from a stop-motion animation video of matches moving around and performing tricks. This image shows a square piece of white paper with a tangle of red yarn on it, as if the red head of a match has slid off and become the yarn. A hand holds the wooden stick of the match next to the paper.

A gif from a stop-motion animation video of matches moving around and performing tricks, showing several matches that disappear into a moving mirror.

A still from a stop-motion animation video of matches moving around and performing tricks showing a tweezers with a match in its grip coming in to add an edge to a cube of matches.