Beijing National Stadium stands wrapped in a seemingly haphazard mesh of steel beams, in a shape that vaguely resembles a colossal robin’s nest.
This gutsy architectural experiment, dubbed the “bird’s nest,” dominates the photographs of influential Chinese artist and project collaborator, Ai Weiwei.
Ai’s photography, along with an array of avant-garde Chinese design work, will be on display at the
Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM), beginning October 18, in China Design Now – an internationally significant exhibition of Chinese graphic design, fashion and architecture, designed by Yung Ho Chang, world renowned Chinese architect and head of MIT’s Department of Architecture.
“The art in China is…really spectacular right now,” says Aaron Betsky, director of CAM.
And “design is following very quickly in its footsteps.”
Betsky first had the inspiration to bring a Chinese design exhibition to Cincinnati after seeing China Design Now, a “dazzling show,” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “I immediately saw whether we could bring it to the United States, and it turned out we could,” he says.
Betsky joined CAM in 2006, after a five year stint as director of the world’s largest architectural museum, the Netherlands Architecture Institute, in Rotterdam.
Alongside maintaining CAM’s long tradition of supporting local artists, Betsky is using his international connections and prowess as critic, curator, lecturer and writer to bring in work from abroad.
China Design Now is a prime example of this commitment in action.
The exhibition takes one on a northerly tour, through three time periods and three hubs where distinct creative communities have evolved.
It begins in the early-1990s in southern Guangdong Province’s graphic design mecca, Shenzhen, or “Frontier City;” moves north to Shanghai, or “Dream City,” where fashion, movies, advertising and lifestyle objects have been created and refined at rapid speed since the mid-1990s; and concludes in Beijing, or “Future City,” seat of government power and architectural test lab for audacious firms since the early 2000s.
Each section is designed to reflect the characteristics of the city it represents: cloud cover glistens over Shenzhen, opaque fabric – reflecting the new – protrudes from the walls of trendy Shanghai, and hard block surfaces speak to Beijing’s construction boom.
It’s dizzying to try to make connections between these eclectic themes. Yet, Betsky says that the application of traditional techniques to contemporary forms underlies these different expressions and links them.
For one example, take “scroll painting where… a series of episodes unfurl, or unfold, or unroll the scroll,” Betsky says. “What’s interesting is to see some of those techniques carried forward into contemporary graphic design…Also some of the jump-cut aesthetic that you might find on MTV or on music videos – you combine those and you get some pretty great hybrid art.”
This traditional-modern hybrid style has influenced fashion, as well.
“I went to a fashion show organized by a Shanghai firm in Beijing,” says Dan Li of Beijing, a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s design program. “The fashion designers did a terrific job integrating traditional elegance with a brand new 21st century style.”
Mikiko Hirayama, Asian Art History Professor at the University of Cincinnati agrees. “There are definitely people who are explicitly referring to Chinese tradition in their art,” she says of certain modern masters.
Reflected in these diverse elements is an emerging “global culture…that comes out of very local traditions and very local forms, but that uses the kind of technology and the kind of language that we all speak today,” Betsky says. “And the power of that specific Chineseness, or things that come out of Chinese traditions, [combined] with the energy of global culture is really exciting.”
It’s still too early to assess the impact Chinese design will have in the West once it reaches maturity.
But for a clue, perhaps Japan can give some indication of the general direction of how things could go for China.
Hirayama mentions the boom Asian pop culture has had in the West – fueled by Japanese anime, manga and video games – as a powerful force that’s brought awareness of things Japanese to the public.
And compared to Japan’s rise, Hirayama says “the connection between economy and art probably applies more to China today.”
With its economic momentum and rapidly growing creative base, Chinese design is bound to shape what we see here, from magazine layouts, to sneakers, to furniture. It’s only a matter of time.
However, Betsky says he thinks it will take a while for the distinct touch of Chinese design to begin trickling down to the store shelf in the West.
Li adds, “I foresee in 15-20 years there will be more high end and high tech consumer products branded in China.”
Yet, even now we can see hints of the coming cross-cultural deluge.
Local architecture firms such as GBBN and corporations like Procter and Gamble along with their product designers already have a significant presence in China.
And it’s only a matter of time before the increased “exchange of people going back and forth between China and the US…brings in even more information, more images from China to the US,” Hirayama says.
CAM is poised to play a central role in introducing these global trends to Cincinnati and beyond. The recent Rembrandt expo, China Design Now show and a Pizarro exhibition on the books all attest to this.
“Certainly we are honoring Cincinnati very strongly in what we do,” Betsky says. And “Cincinnati is very much part of an international culture and international economy, and has been longer than most American cities. We want to honor that tradition and strengthen it in our exhibition program.”
From product design, to architecture, to graphic design and beyond, “I have a feeling, with a little bit of luck, ten years from now you’ll look back at this exhibition, and you’ll say, ‘Ah. That’s where it all came from,’” Betsky says.
With the arrival of China Design Now, Cincinnati is in a unique position to see something at the cutting edge of culture; to catch a glimpse of where things could be heading.
For those who check out China Design Now, Betsky assures, “You’ll see tennis shoes, rock videos, book design and buildings of a kind that you’ve never seen before, in a way that is so lush in its colors and dazzling in its forms that you’ll be blown over.”
EVENT DETAILS:
Cincinnati Art Museum in Eden Park
Oct 18, 2008 – Jan 11, 2009
Organized by Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Photographs provided by China Design Now media kit
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Cincinnati Art Museum banner by Scott Beseler
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