In June I had the chance to take part in a proposal with my Chinese partner Bin Gu and Sara Zhao from Yue Cheng. This project was for the majestic Summer Palace in Beijing. I am very grateful for all those things I've learned during the process. I love to learn about the Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, Republic of China style, Traditional style, (...). It was hard work and I hope you like it.
I will share slides from my partner's presentation. I will complement with information in English since many of us don't speak Chinese. However, I love the characters :)
The first proposal was a more minimalistic and bold style: red and gold. This are powerful colors. The initial idea was to create a lipstick, eye shadow and a small sculpture.
After further exploration and conversations with the client, they were interested in focusing on the Summer Palace Marble boat. Below you will see photos and the initial designs.
The marble boat was burnt by the Anglo-French forces in 1860. It was later rebuilt with a French-style and painted as if it was made of marble. In this first proposal we wanted to symbolize past and present by creating a box representing the modern boat and the lipstick wooden like the old one.
I like the idea of adding a butterfly to the cat. According to different research I did, I saw there was a symbolism around these two creatures:
"Speaking of cats and butterflies, in Ming and Qing dynasties, when the art market has developed, many animal imagery and motifs have been presented during this time, of which butterflies and cats were popular. The reason why the theme of cats and butterflies is so widely used is that both cats and butterflies imply special meanings. The term cat (猫 māo) is pronounced phonemically similar to the character Mao (耄 mào), which means octogenarian, and the second syllable of name for butterfly (hú dié) is a homophone for septuagenarian , Die (耋 dié). Although sometimes the exact ages are mixed for the word Mao and Die, nevertheless, these two terms both express the desire that someone could reach old age." (information taken from here.)
In this new proposal, we would keep the concept but create it within the lipstick itself. I recreated the ornaments for the outside and the wood inside. This design had 2 problems. The first one was the marble texture for print, the production factory recommended not to use textures that were too detailed. Those tones of grey are very similar. And the second problem, which was of more importance, was that the green alluded to a part of Chinese History they didn't want to convey. Here is where I felt a bit lost in translation, not being familiar with how symbols and colors are understood in China. Although initially frustrating, it is very inspiring and satisfying to learn.
Later on, we were asked to try a more modern style that would be inspired in the Republic of China style. Again, I would learn about this graphic period and see how I could adapt it to my style. During this process, we had many meetings between Bin, Sara and I. They were very helpful in sharing information from this culture.
And finally, the last take was the traditional style using colors that are very common in China and which I wasn't aware of. After being acquainted and doing research, I noticed these colors had been so much more common than I thought and I had never noticed. The ornaments were taken from photos of the Summer Palace.
Below you will find photos of Mr. Kat in The Summer Palace. For those who are already familiar with my other sculptures (link), this one is not created in resin or fiber glass. Its a sample in vinyl produced in China. This material will allow us to create a much more economic toy and hopefully be able to produce it soon.
When choosing colors, photos sent online are never faithful to reality. Pantone colors are very helpful.
Below you will also find samples of jewelry that is being produced. These pieces are still in production and I hope they can be available before the end of the year. In the meantime you can find pre-sale here
There is a pre-sale online. If anyone is interested, please don't hesitate to contact me :)
When I share my work with Western friends, I usually hear my style is oriental, very "Chinese" or "Japanese". In this project, the client found my style very western. It is curious how we idealise or imagine other cultures. This has been a great chance, I hope I can have more soon and keep learning and grow.
