play/GROUND #2

play/GROUND, published by Chinese toy Company POP MART is a newspaper-sized publication. The second issue titled ‘The Future Issue’, interrogates the temporal parameters of ‘the future’—as editor-in-chief Greg Grigorian surmises: ‘“the future” isn’t a fixed place. It’s only a mental tool we use to make sense of our current anxieties and desires. Every utopia or apocalypse we dream up is just a mirror for whatever mess we’re standing in right now.’ The focus of this issue then, is not to forecast, but to provide a platform for the established and emerging creatives using the future as a guide to reflect on and shape the present. On the cover, which also doubles as a fold-out poster, it’s Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, hugging a life-size Labubu; inside, she speaks to Meng-Yun Wang about living in—and learning from—the moment. 

Also included: a chain bracelet, referencing Pop Mart’s iconic mascots and personalised tarot.