Transfiguration House

YEAR: 2018

MATERIAL: Antique furniture, thread, wood

SIZE: 300 x 300 x 350 cm

A piece of antique Chinese furniture in a western household usually stands in non-living space as a sculpture. The pragmatism endowed by its original culture has now been transfigured into a decorative item with an overwhelming aesthetic value. The dislocation of time and space creates an illusion as if the furniture is placed in a fading memory. This work is inspired by the transfiguration of meaning arising from items placed in dislocated time and space. Cast in a shape featuring the oriental culture, the work is built with old carved Chinese lattice windows, door panels, and a red cabinet made with carved lacquerware techniques and cabins; the original appearance on the front facade and interior structure are retained, but the baseplate is removed from the side. The structure is reinforced and transfigured into an interior space resembling a miniature hut. It strikes viewers as a combination of Chinese furniture in different shapes and colors and with varying structures, reminiscent of a stage bearing symbols of the oriental culture.

From the lattice windows of the furniture combination structure extend several silk-thread sculptures of various heights. Extending from plane images to three-dimensional space, these silk threads are repurposed into colorful thread columns. Plane images on both sides are part of design plans, amplified and distorted into abstract drawing at once which registers intense cultural conflict and dialog with the appearance made up of Chinese furniture. Looking out from within the structure, viewers will see an expanded architectural structure enabled by silk-thread sculptures. Gazing through the network of silk threads, viewers will be able to see the extension of the space. Plane images on both sides will also blend into one in their vision.

The interior space of the work is made out of deconstructed and expanded furniture, which makes it a non-functional, impractical yet futuristic architectural space. The cultural connotation of Chinese furniture has been shifted both inside and outside the space. The way we think and the values we hold are dependent on the cultural vein of our motherland. The exterior appearance of the work is comprised of eastern cultural symbols cast with contemporary western artistic expression. The respective cultural connotations are accordingly re-deconstructed and reinterpreted as they rest in the space where, observed from an interior perspective, all cultural symbols are wiped off. Eastern and western cultures are not at opposite ends but share a relative relationship. On that account, the co-existence of all fashions of thinking that abound in eastern and western ideologies are justified.