Designer: SHUYU LU

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Born and raised in China, Shuyu Lu is currently a textile artist-in-residence at the Harbourfront Centre Studio in Toronto. She originally came to Canada to pursue an art education at the Ontario College of Art & Design. When she arrived, she started to explore the ways Chinese character, East Asian character, has melded with western sensibilities in Canada as well as in China.

Through screen-printing and embroidery, she expresses these insights along with her nostalgia for the country she left behind. She balances craft with design while making work that is playful, even humorous. What results is something uniquely beautiful and always unexpected.

MORE FROM SHUYU

THE INTERVIEW

wwm: How do you imagine your work displayed in a room?
SL: I think they might be displayed on a shelf or on a wall that already has other art – in the sort of “gallery section” of a home. That’s how I display work in my own home. My work is all about the combination of nostalgia, pop art, East meets West, even the mess of the cultural moment, the multi-cultural world we live in. Since my work is not an abstract painting or a bronze sculpture, it doesn’t need “breathing space” between it and other work.

wwm: What are some other items that seem to fit with your motif?
SL: Vintage toys! Also Chinese, Eastern and Western old posters, and propaganda. I get a lot of inspiration from these kinds of posters, so it would make more sense shown together.

wwm: What are some of your favorite things displayed at your house?
SL: I purchase a first edition print from 1967 of Chairman Mao propaganda from a souvenir store in Toronto’s Chinatown. Now it hangs on my living room’s wall and it is one of my favorite things in my collection. It’s not about the politics – I just fell in love with the graphic design, the color (red, cream, and black) and a sense of reminiscence. It’s kind of funny that I found it in Toronto; it would be hard to find in China now.

wwm: Walk us through the steps you take in creating a new collection.
SL: I finished school last year, so I’ve had two series of work so far. They are all made from a narrative perspective expressing my feelings about cultural impact. In my new work, I will continue to develop this concept. I like to bring the old and the traditional into contemporary pieces, meanwhile showing where the Western & Eastern elements melt together – their melting point.

wwm: What do you imagine a person who buys your work to be like?
SL: A person who has a little child inside of him or her. A happy person but a bit sentimental.

wwm: Do you have a favorite artist or writer? A designer who works in a different material? Who are they?
SL: I have a long list of my favorite artists and designers! The most inspired one is Zhang Xiaogang – the Chinese contemporary artist. He was born in 1958 and was influenced by a period of cultural revolution during his youth. His surrealist paintings are a perfect reflection of the period. It conjures the depressive atmosphere of the time. Dorie Millerson’s needlepoint is also a favorite. Most of her work is tiny and deals with memory, nostalgia, defining home and identity. The lace work brings her memories and moments of attachment to life with their delicate shapes. A person who has a little child inside of him or her. A happy person but a bit sentimental.

Tuesday • August 31, 2010 • by Chauncey Zalkin

Category: Art, China, Design Mix, Designers, Embroidery, Fabric, Interviews, Screenprinting, Shuyu Lu, Textiles

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