Miao Li
Product Design Bdes
ArtEZ University of the Arts
Specialisms: Contemporary Craft / Product Design / Design Research
Location: Arnhem, Netherlands
Miao Li
First Name: Miao
Last Name: Li
Specialisms: Contemporary Craft / Product Design / Design Research
Sectors:
My Location: Arnhem, Netherlands
University / College: ArtEZ University of the Arts
Course / Program Title: Product Design Bdes
About
Miao Li, a maker and researcher born in China and based in Arnhem, the Netherlands, holds backgrounds in product design.
For Miao, realities are unravelled and reflected through investigation and integration of multidiscipline and cross-culture knowledge, besides intuitive crafting as an embodied dialogue between fictional and factual. With material sensitivity and fascination with nature, his work embraces the interconnectedness among ecology, fiction, and non-human and meanwhile celebrates the sublime, intricacy and beauty of nature, exploring possibilities of an eco-centric future.
With ‘Arborescent’ ( meaning: like a tree ), Miao Li delves into human-tree relations such as horticulture, Bonsai, and Mongol-Manchu Shamanism and translates the language of trees into artisanal objects, aiming to evoke alternative understandings and appreciations of trees beyond an anthropocentric worldview. To Miao, trees embody sublime entities of great intricacy and beauty. He meticulously studies how stems branch following mathematical principles, how foliage dances in the wind and how roots whisper to each other across endless fungal networks. By studying the crafts of basketry and Jiseung paper weaving, he ingeniously incorporates them into a range of arborescent objects, ranging from somewhat functional baskets to ornamental tree objects and ritualistic door charms. Through his work, Miao invites us to experience the profound interconnectedness between crafts, ecology and mythology and to see ourselves as part of a tremendous, intricate and animate ecosystem.
Competitions
