Nan co-founded an interior design studio in Ningbo (2015) and a ceramic studio in Ningbo (2012). Her practice covers industrial design, interior design, printmaking, ceramics and craft. In 2016, she curated the Taobao Maker Festival in Shanghai World EXPO Exhibition Convention Center. Her design works emphasize the warmth of handmade objects and the beauty of pragmatism in design. Nan’s works are in the permanent collection of Shanghai Meibo Art Centre, China Academy of Art and Shanghai Library. She is now pursuing her master degree in School of Art Institute in Chicago.

Artist Statement

Today we think of classical Chinese ritual objects, what comes to mind are crafted bronze vessels, jade discs and porcelain pieces. However, for almost the entire first millennium CE (about from 200 BCE-1200CE), ritual paraphernalia were discussed mostly on the basis of transmitted texts and illustrations. The most comprehensive book of such illustrations was a book called Sanli Tu(Illustrations to the Ritual Classics) 三礼图.

I’m reinterpreting and reforming these ancient ritual objects with my subjective opinions. These objects are me, as a designer, using these ancient and vague illustrations as my resource, transforming them into a new collection of designed objects by redefining them into different materials, typologies, meanings and the ritual performance relating to these objects. They are unified symbols of my contemporary identity.

During the process, I pay close attention on how our modern life, my design background, my cultural identity, and my overall experience will influence my interpretive process.

College of Ritual Objects