Detail of Celestial Manual, hand-embroidered chandelier and floor lamp. Developed by Duyi Han in collaboration with Tarun Tahiliani at Shakti Design Residency, India, 2024. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
MYSTIC DATA
DUYI HAN’S INTERIORS ARE FIT FOR A QING
by Andrew Pasquier
Duyi Han's first solo exhibition in China, Visions of Bloom, was on view in November 2024 at Suhe Haus in Shanghai and commissioned by CHERUBY. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Why have ten antiques when you could have 100? A fitting question for decadent times. The “hundred antiques,” the wildly popular 17th-century Chinese decorative pattern, reflected the more-is-more spirit of the Qing dynasty court: bronze vessels, colorful ceramics, and gilded curios forming auspicious patterns of aristocratic lust. While such opulence has largely been consigned to the dustbin of China’s design history, Duyi Han, an architect turned artist, revived this popular motif in his show Visions of Bloom, which was up at Suhe Haus in Shanghai last winter. With immersive scenography — vinyl wallpaper, 3D animation, and looping screens lined the floors, walls, and ceiling of a former bank warehouse — Han proposed a bio-tech update of this pattern of excess for our current age, a so-called “Proteine Grottesche” featuring the Qing-dynasty symbol of luxury with 3D protein molecule models. The full result, the first exhibition supported by the new fashion-art foundation Cheruby and curated by Claire Shiying Li, was otherworldly.
Han’s “neuroaesthetic” eye also found its way to recent presentations in Hong Kong and Milan. Our Superior Algorithm, a set of triumphal banners melding Buddhist techniques with capitalist mantras, appeared at Art Basel Hong Kong in March. And Han just exhibited Celestial Manual, an embroidered chandelier made in collaboration with Indian fashion atelier Tarun Tahiliani during a recent design residency in New Delhi, at the Villa Bagatti Valsecchi for Alcova.
Duyi Han at his solo show, Visions of Bloom. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han and Tarun Tahiliani's Celestial Manual chandelier. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Han is 28 years old, and though he’s worked with Herzog & de Meuron, the somewhat bashful designer found his calling closer to the worlds of fashion and art, creating objects and environments he describes as “neuroaesthetic prescriptions.” In one project from 2021, ordinance of the subconscious treatment, Han designed a mock Airbnb apartment with furniture upholstered in frilly, silk fabrics. Rather than traditional Chinese patterns, he embroidered the collection with stylized molecular structures of ingredients key to mental health such as dopamine, serotonin, and vitamin B-12. The effect is somewhere between a hospital ward and Alice in Wonderland. “My core interest is in the emotional, aesthetic experience of things, so it doesn’t need to be a building,” Han says about his turn to interiors. Rather, his practice involves sifting through mystic data of the Earth, looking for ways to domesticize nature. Like many interior designers of centuries past, he pursues biomimicry as principle and practice.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Still from Duyi Han's Visions of Bloom, 2024. Single-channel 3D animated video. 11 min, 2100 x 2180 px (with frame). Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Proteine Grottesche, 2024. Wall and floor cover, UV print on vinyl. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Plant Photosystem I Super-Complex Components with Vase, 2024. Digital rendering, print on paper. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Scenography for Visions of Bloom. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Minaret or Distal Rod-Hook within the Flagellar Motor-Hook Complex of Salmonella (View 1), 2024. Digital rendering, print on paper. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Pagoda or Archaellum of Methanocaldococcus Villosus, 2024. Digital rendering, print on paper. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Han’s omnivorous references run the gamut, from antiques to neuroscience, but at its core, Visions of Bloom was most inspired by Chinese history. Deep within Beijing’s Forbidden City is the “Palace of Tranquil Longevity,” a retirement home fit for an Emperor who could never retire. Constructed on the meticulous orders of the Quianlong Emperor in 1771, the palace is the pinnacle of extravagant Chinese interior design. Whether the name fits is a matter of taste. Not one square inch of its overstimulating halls lack in froufrou maximalism. And thanks to a new interpretation center opened in 2020 and designed by Selldorf Architects in collaboration with the World Monuments Fund, the meticulously preserved royal backrooms are finally accessible to the public. The first time Han visited in 2022, he was awestruck.
Qianlong Garden, Hall of Tranquil Longevity, Forbidden City. Built 1771.
Courtesy of Hillary Prim at World Monuments Fund.
Duyi Han, Synthesis of ATP ATP, 2024. Bench, hand-embroidered, sponge, upholstered. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Light-Dependent Reactions in Photosynthesis, 2024. Hand embroidery on silk. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
In Visions of Bloom, Han spliced eras and references with ease to create an updated version of this patterned cacophony: cellular processes, Baroque cathedrals, Roman murals, and schematic drawings of photosynthesis. With the aid of Youtube and scientific papers, Han mapped protein processes, creating a series of hand-embroidery on silk titled Writing System or 22 Proteinogenic Amino Acids (书写系统或二十二种蛋白氨基酸). “Amino acids are the building blocks of protein molecules,” Han observed, and “brush strokes are the building blocks of East Asian writing systems.” The parallelism is poetic and effective. “I mix these human visual mechanisms and natural processes to allude to a universal truth in aesthetics and general laws in creation. Rays of cosmic warmth.”
When we first spoke about Visions of Bloom, Han pointed out how the reign of the Quianlong Emperor (1735–1796) represented both the high point of Chinese design and the downward shift of the dynasty’s fortunes — the peak signaled the decline, so to speak. Marveling in the tranquil decadence of Qing interiors, it’s easy to read shades of today’s tale — the unsustainable gluttony of the elite, walling themselves off within the Forbidden Palace, funding the design of beautiful things. Time for Duyi Han’s uncanny update.
Duyi Han, Island or Phycobilisome Photosystem II Supercomplex from Cyanobacterial Spirulina Platensis, 2024. Digital rendering, print on paper. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, From Amino Acid to Protein, 2024. Hand embroidery on silk. Courtesy of Duyi Han.
Duyi Han, Writing System or 22 Proteinogenic Amino Acids, 2024. Hand embroidery on silk. Courtesy of Duyi Han.