Tradition Now
My topic is Tradition Now.
I`ll start with a brief introduction of myself. My name is Gu Qing. I have more than 15 years publishing experience and was editor in chief of two design/lifestyle magazines.
In 2011, I established a magazine called Grand Design, which was a publication based in Shanghai focusing on local design. We introduced many young design talents, and in the mean time we also brought numerous outstanding design works to the international arena. Since then, I started my personal research on the connection between modern design and traditional handicraft.
Three years later, in 2014, I established another high-end lifestyle magazine called CIRCA. I expected to integrate design, art, and lifestyle. Besides printed content, we also took advantage of video communication. We filmed many craftsmen and artisans, documenting their creation and day-to-day life.
Currently it’s very popular in China that one have multiple identities, so do I.
In 2012 I co-founded Kaolin, a ceramic platform. Apart from my personal interest in ceramic, the reason behind was: I noticed there were many talented young Chinese artists and designers in the field of ceramic, while their opportunities to promote their works were very limited back then. So we were dedicated to create new opportunities for them. The slogan of Kaolin is 'We sing for ceramic'.
In 2014, Kaolin attended the exhibition Design Shanghai, with a group exhibition of 7 artists. In the same year, during Beijing design week, we curated a series of installations by artist Jin Zhenhua whose work represented a new understanding of ceramic. And for almost 8 years, Kaolin has been keeping introducing young designers and artists in its offical blog.
2016 I founded Qing Studio named after myself.Through events, columns, forum and generating new products, I have been focusing on the integration between contemporary handcraft and design. Working as the consultant and curator, I has created many other exhibitions and events.
Last year I published my first book named "Down to earth", which sets the porcelain capital JingDeZhen as the base. I spent eight years to observe the young generation of artists to record their exploration between tradition and contemporary, east and west, handmade manufacture and industrial production.
Recently, In China, the revival of traditional crafts has become an important social phenomenon.Indesign industry, there are many designers who draw inspiration from traditional craftsmanship and apply them into their work. Now I will share some projects which I involved in .
In 2017, I had an interesting project. I was invited to curate an exhibition in a small village called BiShan, it`s located in Anhui province with a beautiful landscape and is famous for its` Black Tea and many traditional handicrafts, such as Bamboo, Iron Art.
The exhibition was for the reopening of The Bishan Crafts Cooperatives. The old building has more than 60 years history, the structure inside was well kept and also enlarged the space for workshop and exhibition.
Like many rural areas in China, BiShan village is undergoing the process of urbanization, young people flood into the big cities, now the residents in the village are mostly old people and children.
I hope that the exhibition would tackle the real situation, In addition to tourism, it provides some other opportunities to improve the local economy, helping the young people to come back to the village.
My idea was to invited 7 designers into Bishan, asking them to work with the local craftsmen to make some products, which can be used in our daily life. The designers visited the Iron Shop and the bamboo workshop, discussed and learned from the old, some of them made good statement by using the traditional craftsmanship.
There is a short video about how the designer worked with the craftsmen, let take a quick look.
The opening of the exhibition was very impressive to me, the first time I saw so many people in the village, To me, it was an experiment how design can add value to the tradition crafts.
In 2018, I visited a lacquer ware factory in Yangzhou. As we all know, China is the first country in the world to use lacquer ware, and its history can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. The curved lacquer ware technique is very famous in Yangzhou.The owner of this factory hires some young people to inherit this technique.
Just like you could see from the photos, the details and the process of the crafts are very exquisite. Usually it will takes seven or eight months to finish a piece of lacquer ware. But when you see the finished one, besides the expensive price, it`s just an example of the delicate technique.
There should be more solutions for the crafts to find a new life.
Last year, I launched a project which is called “Wo Ni Shanghai”, the pronunciation is Shanghai Dialect, the word means Shanghai about you and me.
Shanghai has a 1300 years history, with its` rapid developing speed, Shanghai has the highest GDP volume between all Chinese cites with a long handicraft tradition. I invited designers and the local craftsmen into this project, to show their new works, some are originate from Shanghai ancient crafts, like straw weaving some are from new technology.
I believe design is a method, in the current revival of traditional crafts, with thoughtful design we could give those ancient technique a younger and lasting life with a better price.
