China pumps up stylish shoe

Wearable culture

As the first design exhibition at UCCA, Broached Retreat displays the works in a pavilion with two rooms - a "masculine" and a "feminine" space.

"We imagined a couple who, although in love, decided they needed separate rooms for relaxation and reflection. That's why we titled the exhibition Broached Retreat," Weis says.

The show continues the studio's tradition of presenting collaborations between core and guest designers.

"Their nationalities, and therefore their cultural life, is deeply connected to our design story," Weis says.

Taiwan-born, Sydney-based designer Chen Lu, who designed the pavilion, explains that the two rooms - one black and one white - reference Mies van der Rohe's architecture and traditional Chinese pavilions.

He explains the stone walls symbolize rock formations associated with scholars in traditional Chinese culture, while the use of black cloth printed with Chinese ink painting hints at modern interpretations of traditional art forms. They take on new meanings and become the interior's skin. He also designed a dressing table to fit in the pavilion context.

Chen attributes his design style to his Chinese heritage. He links the past to the present through dark, or yin, and light, or yang, spaces and establishes dialogues between public and private domains.

"My Chinese heritage is forever within my decision making, and it is ingrained with my aesthetic sensibility," he says.

"In Broached Retreat, this sensibility had evolved into a dialogue between East and West - not as opposites but as the dual perspectives that exist within me and within us today."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn