The “Crafting the Future: New Value of Tradition” exhibition, which kicked off in late August in the 1,700-year-old Nantou Ancient Town, Nanshan District, is an exploration into the possibilities of utilizing traditional crafts to create modern designs.
The exhibition, a subvenue of the 2020 Shenzhen Design Week, presents designs and artworks of seven designers and design teams from across China, featuring traditional crafts including gold filigree art, embroideries, Xuan paper making and more. Entry is free.
“For thousands of years, traditional crafts have been means of livelihood for ordinary folk in China. They’re never outdated, but we need to find new ways to pass the crafts to the future generations. That’s why we invited the designers and their works to this exhibition,” said Zhang Linling, one of the exhibition’s curators.
Highlighted items include a gold filigree jewelry collection by Chinese jewelry designer Zhang Fan, two chairs made from Xuan paper (a kind of paper used for brush writing and painting in China) by the PINWU design studio, insect-shaped embroidered oranaments by Chinese artist Wu Wei, and a bench consisting of traditional clay water vats by designer Guo Qingwei.
A work by Zhang Fan.
Zhang’s gold jewelry collection, titled “Yan Yi,” literally translated as “producing differences,” is a fusion of traditional goldwork and contemporary design. It features gold bracelets and necklaces that to the eyes have the light texture of silk. To create such fabric-like surfaces, the artist has woven tiny gold and silver filaments into meshes with the ancient art of gold filigree, a technique that was frequently used in ancient Chinese royal courts.
The Hangzhou-based PINWU design studio has applied traditional Chinese crafts using paper, bamboo, porcelain, silk and bronze to create a wide range of designs. Studio artists include Chinese designer Zhang Lei, Serbian designer Jovana Zhang, and German designer Christoph John. Their work “Piao,” literally translated as “fluttering,” is a paper chair. By applying layers of Xuan paper to umbrella ribs, a technique used in traditional umbrella making, the designers have given the chair the solidness of wood chairs. The other paper chair on display is made from paper pulp and bamboo paper.
A paper vase by PINWU. Photos by Liu Xudong
Another work on display by PINWU is a water-proof paper vase made from moso bamboo. In some ancient villages near Hangzhou, villagers earn a living by making paper for brush writing and painting from this kind of bamboo. Modern designs like the vase may have “opened another door” for the ancient craft, the studio wrote on its introduction to the vase.
Wu Wei’s “Insect Kingdom” and “Fantasy Moths” collections originated from a dragonfly she spotted in her friend’s courtyard. The exhibits include pins and other ornaments in the shape of insects such as dragonflies, butterflies and moths, and are a blend of traditional Chinese embroidery and new materials. One of the pins on display is made of fur that fell off the artist’s cat.
Interior designer Guo Qingwei’s bench, exhibited outdoors in front of the Dieyuan opera stage in Nantou Ancient Town, exemplifies Guo’s nostalgia for water vats, which used to be a daily utensil in Chinese families for storing water or making pickled food and wine. To bring water vats back to people’s life, the designer created two works that gave the old-day utensils new functions — a bench with one vat at each end and a chair with a vat as the base.
The bench with water vats designed by Guo Qingwei. Courtesy of 2020 Shenzhen Design Week organizing committee
Other items at the exhibition include food and beverage packaging designs with traditional Chinese calligraphy and paintings, fashion designs with Xinjiang embroideries, and the Supertibet project that features Tibetan crafts.
An online exhibition is also available at the Shenzhen Design Week WeChat miniapp.