2024.11.08-2025.01.25
ART IN SUHE HAUS "Tomorrow in HAUS" unit will feature the experimental exhibition “Duyi Han: Visions of Bloom”. As the inaugural exhibition of CHERUBY(樱桃瑚), with Claire Shiying Li’s curatorial vision, “Visions of Bloom” will succinctly showcase an amalgamation of Duyi Han’s personal research in alternate architectural histories, his in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge technology and production techniques, and a multi-layered exploration in cross-disciplinary thinking. The exhibition consists of an all encompassing wall and floor cover installation titled “Proteine Grottesche”, an animated video “Visions of Bloom” which transforms artifacts into natural creatures, a collectible bench with embroidered upholstery “Synthesis of ATP” and multiple framed pictures made of embroidery on silk.
Duyi Han (b. 1994) has made a name for himself on the international scene since 2020 as a Chinese avant-garde scenographer and collectible furniture designer. “Visions of Bloom” (琳琅) is his first solo exhibition in China, presenting all-new major works commissioned by CHERUBY. The exhibition explores his identity as a multi-disciplinary artist and brings together the worlds of art and design.
“Visions of Bloom” is designed like a miniature Chinese treasure gallery on the first floor of Suhe Haus, reflecting Asian philosophies and Eastern and Western architectural legacies. “Proteine Grottesche” is a wallpaper and floor covering installation that consists of “Myriad Antiques” (Bogu patterns) made with 3D protein molecule models inspired by interior ornaments from the Qing dynasty and mural compositions of the Domus Aurea in Rome. Duyi Han uses published 3D models from RCSB Protein Data Bank as building blocks to formulate a cross-cultural art historical matrix, a palace of pictorial data aggregation. With scholarly taste, he collects myriad of visual sources from biology and archeology, blurring the lines between life-forming and art-making. Han explores an existential truth and an awakening perspective in his celebratory portraits of nature and artifacts.
In the center of the exhibition, there is a video installation titled “Visions of Bloom”, reminiscent of Western timepieces brought to Emperor Qianlong which symbolizes sophistication in craftsmanship and pre-modern curiosity in time-based art. Duyi Han independently creates rendered animation clips and assembles them in accidental fashion, alluding to a Buddhist Huayan school belief that all things and phenomenons are interchangeable and compatible with each other. In front of the screen, an upholstered bench displays embroidered diagrams depicting the synthesis process of ATP in cells of living organisms, all of which framed by decorative curtains with hints of a cosmic zen atmosphere and a queer sensibility. Duyi Han reimagines the notion of an ornamented room or a scholarly garden in the trajectory of Chinese history, experimenting a cross-pollination of science and art history for a multi-layered and multi-cultured sensorial universe.
Text by Claire Shiying Li
ABOUT ARTIST
Duyi Han (1994) focuses on forefront aesthetic research and the creation of total aesthetic experiences. He works in collectible design, scenography, and digital art. He considers the creation of his objects and environments as “neuroaesthetic prescriptions” ——intricate semiotics of beauty algorithmically guided by the Tao of time and change. Duyi Han is inspired by art history, Eastern Asian philosophy, and contemporary pharmaceutical practices. He draws references from diverse cultural and temporal contexts. By remixing and transforming “ingredients of beauty,” he “prescribes” specific visual content to evoke rich feelings. Duyi Han’s work is known for contemporary and groundbreaking interpretations of traditional art forms, exploration of psychology, and visual semiotics. Much of Duyi Han’s work is related to textile and fashion industry as fashion is a major driving force of contemporary visual culture.
Duyi Han holds a B. Arch from Cornell University and has worked at Herzog & de Meuron and other architecture studios in Switzerland, China, and the US. Duyi Han’s work has been recognized by multidisciplinary awards including Créateurs Design Award, Architizer A+ Award, Aesthetica Art Prize, AZ Awards, and Dezeen awards. His work has appeared on media platforms in more than 20 languages, including Architectural Digest, Vogue, CNN, Dezeen, Vice, and US National Academies of Science, Technology, and Medicine Magazine. His Ordinance of the Subconscious Treatment is named among the 12 best installations at Milan Design Week by Architectural Digest. In 2024, He collaborated with Dior on the Lady Dior As Seen By handbag. Duyi Han’s work has been exhibited at Salon 94 Design gallery (New York), Alcova Milano, Venice TSE Architecture Biennial, Venice Design Biennial, Asia Now (Paris), Vienna Design Week, Collectible (Brussels), Lake Como Design Festival, Barcelona Design Week, Sifang Art Museum (Nanjing), World Trade Center (New York), and Meta ZiWU (China). Duyi Han’s work is in the permanent collection of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
ABOUT CHERUBY
Based in Shanghai, CHERUBY is a non-profit art institution founded by collector Cherry Xu. CHERUBY supports the creative development of visionary emerging talent bringing the worlds of contemporary art and fashion. CHERUBY produces exhibitions, publications, residences, and curatorial projects aimed at facilitating and shaping an interdisciplinary discourse and aesthetics around the fashioning of contemporary art.
Bringing together young and emerging creatives, CHERUBY provokes a spirit of curiosity and desire for collaboration to bridge a cultural understanding between the East and the West through its network and activities. CHERUBY champions youth culture and platforms multi-disciplinary and experimental practices that operate in the peripheries.
CHERUBY will officially open its doors in March 2025 with a permanent bricks-and-mortar space in Shanghai.
ABOUT CURATOR
Claire Shiying Li is a curator based in Shanghai and London. Through exhibition-making, film producing, and strategic programming, she paves innovative paths for Asian diasporic art and cross-disciplinary dialogue to flourish.Li holds a master’s degree in Modern and Contemporary Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in architectural studies and art history from Rice University. She also studied Filmmaking at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
As a curator, she organized exhibitions such as “Julian Junyuan Feng: Action de Jouissance”, Suhe Haus, 2023; “Lawrence Lek: Post-sinofuturism”, Meta Media, 2022; “Banal Objects/DIY Aesthetics: A Continuation of Decentralized Reality with Expanding Intimacy”, OCAT Institute, Beijing, 2021; “Spring Time, Palm Trees”, Antenna Space, 2021 and others. As a researcher or writer, she participated in exhibitions in Tai Kwun Contemporary, Prada Foundation, and TANK Shanghai.
She is the Founding Producer of Acting Method Production, which helps Asian and Asian diasporic moving image artists with their feature film production. Past films produced by Li have been screened at Centre Pompidou, Taipei Biennial, Rockbund Art Museum, Westbund Museum, M+ Museum, Whitney Museum, E-flux, and other notable venues. The latest film she served as executive producer for is “In Her Time (Iris’s Version)” directed by artist Diane Severin Nguyen, currently on view at the “Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better than the Real Thing”.
Li was the Senior Editor at Meta Media Group, editing art content for Numéro Art, Art Review Asia, and Modern Weekly. She currently serves on the Editorial Board at PROVENCE.
Claire Shiying Li is Curatorial Director at CHERUBY (樱桃瑚), Shanghai.
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