New Antique Project

During the 2019 graduation exhibition at the Royal College of Art in the UK, designer Li Jia-ling from the Textiles Department - Mixed Media Group presented her graduation project titled "The New Antique." This unique display featured an array of hand fans, a four-meter-long scarf, and a double-person cape. "The New Antique" is an extension of Jia-ling's project "35 Pieces of Jade," which was displayed at the 2018 Dutch Design Week. Both projects revolve around the legends and lucky items of Southeast Asian islands.

Jia-ling's creations probe contemporary designers' role in sustainability and environmental conservation. They question why we produce objects and their meanings beyond their functional utility. In her work, one can see the employment of traditional crafts, materials, and symbols, such as basketry weaving, jade carving, and auspicious patterns. As a designer with an industrial product background, she hopes to convey that innovation relies not just on modern technology but also on cultural heritage and nature. For example, hand fans were used as love tokens in the past; a woman giving a fan to a man symbolized a promise of love.

Having three years of professional experience in product development in Taiwan, Jia-ling has also studied at the Taiwan Crafts Research and Development Institute due to her passion for natural fibres. Her ability to balance digital and manual techniques shows this, sparking new possibilities in her work. In "The New Antique" project, she developed a unique method of crafting hand fans. She used laser-cutting to create a wood template, manually wrapped different fibres like banana silk and vine around it, and then used electrical embroidery to fix the fibre structure.

During her studies at the Royal College of Art, Jia-ling explored how humans assign meaning to objects. People historically sought symbolism from the land, nature, and animals. For instance, they believed stones possessed natural powers, a bundle of straw hanging on the wall represented good luck for the New Year, and red and circular shapes held different symbolic meanings across cultures. To Jia-ling, this is a process of reassembling symbols and creating new codes.

"Many visitors to the exhibition told me that my works resemble museum exhibits as if they each have their own stories and are 'worth a long look,' particularly their materials and details. These transformed symbols in the creative process seem both new and old. Indeed, what I'm doing resembles museology, finding some 'creation methods' in history that are not scientific but have certain formulas," said Jia-ling.