Lion Dance Costume | Chen Chen & Kai Williams

We have always used textile, but never in its traditional applications. In previous projects, textile has been used to make a bag to restrict the expansion of polyurethane foam, or impregnated with resin to make hard shapes that we could cut with a saw. It seemed obvious to follow a similar path for this project. We started with the intention of making a boat by replacing fibreglass with Canvas and hardening the wool fibres with marine epoxy.

Structurally it worked, but aesthetically it was a failure. The beautifully rich colours of the textile became muddy and uninteresting once the epoxy had soaked in. This was in striking contrast to the frayed edges that were appearing as we cut the textile. As the edges frayed and the individual colours in the weave were revealed, they had an unexpected intensity.

These frayed edges resembled the decorative fringe of a Chinese lion dance costume. We became excited by the idea of creating a performance where the textile could be seen in movement and as part of an artefact.

The production was very labour-intensive: the cape alone is composed of more than 200 panels, each of which took around 25 minutes to produce.

We collaborated with the company Julia Crockett & Group and composer Zane Morris to create an original performance piece based both on interactions with the completed costume and the idea of the traditional lion dance.

Chen Chen & Kai Williams

Chen Chen & Kai Williams はニューヨークを拠点としたデザインスタジオで、家具、製品、インテリア、マルチマテリアルを手がけています。デザインスタジオは、2011年にプラット・インスティテュート出身の Chen Chen (中国、1985年) と Kai Williams (米国、1984年) が実験的なスタジオとして設立しました。


Chen ChenとKai Williams は商業的かつコレクティブルなデザインマーケットで活躍しています。本物の果物から取った型で作られた Stone Fruit プランター、実用的な Third Eye Vessels、ユニークな Resin Benches、そびえたつ Warp Core フロアライトなど、二人が手がける作品からは新しい形のデザインシンキングを感じ取ることができます。

これまで Études Studio、Baggu、Mission Chinese 等に作品を提供してきたほか、ニューヨークのュージアム・オブ・アーツ・アンド・デザイン、ヴェネチア・ビエンナーレ国際建築展で作品を発表してきました。さらに、Tai Ping Carpets、Areaware、Good Thing のプロダクトデザインも手がけています。