Fruit Towers

Commissioned by: NTCRI

2018, Yingge, Taiwan

National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute (NTCRI) and art director Lise Coirier have invited us, along with other five designers, to take part of A New Layer II.

During two visits we have traveled across the island, exploring new possibilities of using traditional Taiwanese crafts.

The Fruit Towers are ceramic vases with high-temperature glaze executed by the craftsmen Jian-Fu Zhong and Wen-Yi Kung.

Our inspiration originated from the immerse collection of objects and artifacts we have seen at the National Palace Museum, particularly those shaped as natural elements – from rocks to plants and animals.

Besides the skillfully executed details we perceived somewhat surreal and humorous characteristics in those objects – something we have also found back in the colorful, exotic displays of seasonal fruits in shops and juice vendors.

With the Fruit Towers we wanted to display a relationship between the past and the present, traditional and contemporary.

With special thanks to Ben Chiu

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process