During this year’s Design Miami/ Podium x Shanghai design exhibition, the “East and West” project curated by American contemporary artist Daniel Arsham and cross-border artist Oscar Wang made its debut in Zhangyuan. The thinking process behind the “East and West” project transcends all outdated notions of “East meets West” and serves as a “blueprint” to synchronize traditional craftsmanship and contemporary aesthetics into material output. This is an interesting pun. As a general term for a physical object, “thing” is of great significance, and the limited edition series of collections born from it have created a new model of cross-cultural cooperation.
In this exhibition, the “East and West” teapot will be displayed for the first time as the first collection of this series. The raw material of this teapot is the rare green clay of the Republic of China, which is worth as much as gold, and it is handmade in Yixing, a long-established industry center. The decoration of the whole pot adopts the hand-painted silver process of Tongzhuan to decorate the appearance, and the ingenuity of traditional skills is endowed with a deeper meaning. It is referenced to the “blueprint” and is grid-like, embodying a seamless fusion of tradition and innovation.
The futuristic-style tea room in the exhibition systematically demonstrates the functionality of the “East and West” tea sets through live demonstrations by tea masters. In the adjoining space, previous iterations of Archive Editions are displayed on the other side of the tearoom, placed like anthropological heritage on pedestals. The reinterpretation of tradition becomes the visual highlight of the entire space: rows of bamboo and decorative screens are given a modernist touch. Linear markings on the walls and floors push the concept outside, allowing visitors to fully immerse themselves in the “blueprint”.
This multi-sensory journey of sight, hearing, smell and taste culminates in a specially tailored background music for the event. C major is the central note in both Eastern and Western music, where the bass and treble interact and flourish in harmony. Like the alchemical moment when water reaches its boiling point and alters its essence, the “East and West” project reflects differences, but also recognizes the fundamental coexistence of harmonious coexistence in this world. The last space is a concept store transformed from a traditional Chinese medicine store, where you can order “things” tea sets, as well as a series of limited-edition products that match the exhibition, including T-Shirt and tea bags.