randian | 燃点

Exhibition Dates
22 March–14 April, 2016
Monday–Saturday, noon–7pm; Sunday, noon–5pm; Extended Hours: 22–26 March, 9am–9pm
Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong SOHO, No. 1, G/F & 1/F, SOHO 189, 189 Queen’s Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Hong Kong—Pearl Lam Design is delighted to present China Clean, an exhibition of sculptural designs by Italian designer and entrepreneur Enrico Marone Cinzano. The exhibition will comprise eight pieces of luxury, sustainable furniture, many of which have been created in response to the designer’s visits to China, as well as exploration of its culture and connection with nature and the environment. Taking place at the Galleries’ space at SOHO 189, this exhibition will run from 22 March to 14 April, 2016.

“All great progress comes at a cost. I am a strong believer that products can be made better, more efficiently, effectively, and with less waste. The purpose of my work is to further the cause of sustainability in a modern and aesthetically pleasing way. Health, energy efficiency, and waste control are pillars of my design philosophy. I look to Nature for inspiration, using biomimicry and the proportions of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence as my guiding lights.”

—Enrico Marone Cinzano

The premise of this exhibition is what Cinzano perceives to be a commonly held misconception in the West of China’s relationship with the environment. While generally perceived as inspiring mass production and movement, Cinzano encountered a country receptive to sustainability with a deep-rooted connection to the natural world. Through his explorations of ancient Chinese craftsmanship and an education by Pearl Lam about the literati and intelligentsia of the Imperial Court, Cinzano has designed this collection in response to and in celebration of a recently discovered culture.

Highlights include Double Happiness Cabinet (2015) and Qing Chair (2015) made from hand-carved recycled elm wood and assembled using traditional Chinese joinery with Western iconography. In addition, the Fibonacci Table (2015) made from stainless steel, petrified wood, and tempered glass draws inspiration from Italian mathematician Fibonacci whose sequence of numbers is commonly demonstrated in nature. In collaboration with contemporary furniture brand Stellar Works, Cinzano has also designed the Flat Pack Collection (2015), featuring nine colour options of chairs and tables that deconstruct for accessibility and transportability.

In drawing inspiration from nature and its proportions, Cinzano respects and acknowledges the limited resources that the world can provide for a growing population. It is the designer’s hope that sustainability will soon become second nature, while a focus on performance and utility will create furniture that is pleasing to the eye because of its functionality rather than an imposed aesthetic. The works on display, created in response to his introduction to China, are created with natural materials that for Cinzano exemplify true luxury.

“I am delighted to welcome Enrico Marone Cinzano to Hong Kong. I am glad to have been so involved in introducing Enrico to Chinese culture and to have been part of a discourse regarding his previous understandings of society and culture in China. These beautiful pieces provide an insight into Enrico’s response to this discourse, having been brought up surrounded by classical Western design and architecture himself.”

—Pearl Lam, Founder of Pearl Lam Galleries

About the Designer

Enrico Marone Cinzano has made a career of pushing boundaries and questioning how design can affect society. Following a successful career as Co-Creative Director of the critically acclaimed and award-winning ready-to-wear line, Project Alabama, Cinzano embarked on his collection of ethical furniture in 2011. Inspired by nature and its inherent balance, he sought out to fully integrate sustainability and artful design to create structural and sculptural products. His body of work blends art and function with locally sourced salvaged materials that undergo rigorous standards of construction and craftsmanship.

Selected exhibitions include Fuorisalone (2015 and 2012), Milan Design Week, Rossana Orlandi Gallery, Milan, Italy; Untold (2014), Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan, Italy; Bagatti Valsecchi 2.0 (2013), Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan, Italy; and Rossana Orlandi Gallery at Design Miami (2013), Miami, USA.

About Pearl Lam Design

Pearl Lam has tirelessly promoted design as an art form in China. She started exhibiting and promoting decorative art and design in 1993 in Hong Kong, mounting avant-garde exhibitions, which focused on building interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues. From an early stage, popular touring shows such as Awakening: La France Mandarine, the French Influence on Chinese Art (2004–2005) brought attention to the value and significance of contemporary decorative art and design in China for the first time.

Pearl Lam Design is at the forefront of contemporary design in China. The gallery invites designers from across the world to create exclusive limited edition pieces, providing a platform for designers to participate in dynamic cultural exchanges between the East and West. The majority of these designers work with Chinese craftsmen to realise their creations, many of which are driven by narrative, and push the boundaries of traditional Chinese art and craft techniques.

Pearl Lam Design aims to illustrate the absence of segregation between fine art and design in traditional Chinese culture, where decorative art assimilates into fine art, modernity merges with traditions, and traditional values are still revered.

Pearl Lam Design works with Maarten Baas, Mattia Bonetti, Reinier Bosch, Patrice Butler, Enrico Marone Cinzano, André Dubreuil, Studio Makkink & Bey, Studio Swine, Martin Szekely, Peter Ting, Bouke de Vries, Philip Michael Wolfson, XYZ Design, and Danful Yang, among others.