Plastic Ceramic Tableware by Taiwanese designer Pili Wu occupies a strange boundary between fine dining and mass-produced culture. The designer created a set of ceramic work which was inspired by the disposable tableware of roadside diners in Taiwan.
The set looks like a misfit from two opposing worlds. As fine ceramic tableware, we’re struck by the strangeness of its simplicity. At CFile we’ve shown you plates that are cerebral expressions of a designer’s vision, objects that are essays in color and form, that reference great artists or even architecture. Pili Wu, however, planted his flag in a homage to tableware that isn’t intended to be noticed.
The set doesn’t fit in with mass culture, either. It turns its back on key design elements of its source material in that such plastic ware is cheap, mass produced, efficient and doesn’t invite the user to study the single-use vessels themselves. The designer ignores all that by yoking such design to the ages-spanning cultural force of porcelain.
But the set works because of the contradictions. It allows us to consider the mundane in a new way, which is always better than mindlessly consuming and creating trash.
Pili Wu created the set in collaboration with artisan Tsun-jen Lee for Taiwan’s HAN Gallery. According to his biography, the designer’s works reflect the visual and sensual experience of life in his home country, to demonstrate the cultural significance of Asia. He’s pursuing a master’s degree at the Industrial Design Department of Shih-Chien University.
Bill Rodgers is a Contributing Editor at CFile.
Above image: Plastic Ceramic Tableware by Pili Wu for HAN Gallery.
Plastic Ceramic Tableware by Pili Wu for HAN Gallery.
Add your valued opinion to this post.