About Recycled China – Shatter. Crush. Sift

Recycled China is a design team consisting of artists Thomas Schmidt and Jeffrey Stephen Miller. Based in Beijing, the artists transform discarded ceramics and other industrial materials within China into artworks and design objects.

This work is the result of an ongoing collaboration with an aluminum foundry in northern Beijing. While normally producing parts for machinery, the factory agreed to let the artists use the site for a series of material experiments.

The work is made of four different materials; discarded porcelain from factories in Jingdezhen, Coal-ore used to heat houses in the outskirts of Beijing, Glass from a construction market, and Dirt collected from the floor of the aluminum foundry. Each material tells a story about industry and the marketplace within China. These materials were selectively shattered, crushed, or sifted into molds onto which molten aluminum was poured, producing works which abstract the boundaries between industry and art.