Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Li Xiaofeng Makes Clothing from Broken Porcelain

Chinese artist Li Xiaofeng uses broken slivers of porcelain found at archaeological sites to create original costumes he calls "rearranged landscapes" for their ability to tell a story. To create his wearable works, Xiaofeng shapes and polishes found shards of porcelain from the Song, Ming, Yuan and Qing Dynasties. He drills holes into the pieces and loops them together with a silver wire to create traditional Chinese dresses, jackets and military uniforms.

Chinese artist Li Xiaofeng uses broken slivers of porcelain found at archaeological sites to create original costumes he calls “rearranged landscapes” for their ability to tell a story. To create his wearable works, Xiaofeng shapes and polishes found shards of porcelain from the Song, Ming, Yuan and Qing Dynasties. He drills holes into the pieces and loops them together with a silver wire to create traditional Chinese dresses, jackets and military uniforms.

In an interview with Azure magazine, Xiaofeng explained Chinese eat rice out of ceramic dishes. Therefore, by re-purposing ceramic shards as clothing to cover the human form, Xiaofeng’s “rearranged landscapes” explore the relation between the ceramic material and human body. To view a dress or jacket by Xiaofeng is to see centuries of history come together into a contemporary artwork. In other words, details in the porcelain reveal political, social and cultural changes in China’s history, both ancient and contemporary. Just as the long neck of a vase implies grace or a lotus flower represents purity, the forms and patterns in Xiaofeng’s costumes suggest a myriad of meanings.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Kate MacDowell's handsculpted, porcelain creatures and plantlife look at both the vulnerability and power of the natural world. The artist says she choses "porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture." MacDowell is featured in the Hi-Fructose Collected 4 boxset.
Zemer Peled's porcelain work emerges from an inherently violence process. She smashes her handmade ceramics to pieces and uses the shards as new sculpting material. Peled constructs organic shapes out of the jagged fragments, evoking floral arrangements and at times, biomorphic, abstract masses. But despite her freeform, intuitive process, the Israeli artist creates her final sculptures with great attention to organization and detail. The shards appear nearly uniform and are carefully juxtaposed next to one another to create rhythmic shapes that emulate nature.
The brutal paintings of Cleon Peterson (covered here) have a visceral effect on the viewer, plunging them deeply into a world of chaos, ruin and violence. On August 29th, Peterson brings his iconic style to Detroit's Library Street Collective for his latest exhibition, "Poison." "The show is about revenge, which is a current of poison running through our culture and other cultures around the world." Peterson shares. "It's often a motivation for war and a justification for punishment. It is a social impulse that is destructive and easy to be complicit in." Peterson is deliberate in his unflinching presentation of the darker side of human nature. In this world, muscle-headed brutes cross swords and knives, locked in a cycle of aggression.
HF Vol. 21 artist Katsuyo Aoki is perhaps best known for her intricate, pure white porcelain skulls, covered here. Her latest sculptures are decorated with colorful designs, some of which are now on display in "The Colors of Globalization" at Bernardaud Foundation in Paris. It was Victorian England that kicked off the trade of blue and white porcelain originally. Aoki's palette draws upon this time period, which dates back to 18th century designs that imitated Chinese porcelain.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List