Photography by GARRIE MAGUIRE
Birth of Q2, 2025
Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty Cizhou kiln porcelain shards
Photography by GAO YANG
In the hands of Li Xiaofeng, fragments of ancient porcelain find new life, not as relics of the past but as intricate garments redefining wearable art. It’s not about just making garments – it’s about stitching together centuries. With shards of ancient porcelain, salvaged from the ruins of China’s storied dynasties, he crafts sculptures that defy convention. These pieces, both fragile and bold, merge history with innovation. Li Xiaofeng’s work isn’t just couture – it’s a conversation across time.
hube: Like a sculptor shaping stone or a painter mixing pigments, you work with porcelain shards, pieces of the past, to create new, living art. How do you transform these fragments of history into something that speaks to the present? Does each shard carry a particular memory or emotion you try to awaken?
Li Xiaofeng: China has been using clay to make pottery since the Neolithic period. After thousands of years of ceramic development, a splendid and brilliant ceramic art culture was created. Blue and white porcelain took shape in the Yuan dynasty, reaching its peak, which is closely related to the maturity of painting art since the Tang and Song dynasties. Through continuous firing and improvement during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese porcelain became famous both domestically and abroad for its ‘white as jade, bright as a mirror, thin as paper, and sound as a bell’. The term ‘Fine China’ refers to exquisite porcelain.
The ancient ceramics’ simple, elegant, and restrained aesthetic often leaves me lingering and gives me rich spiritual nourishment. Over the years, I have travelled across construction sites and antique markets collecting porcelain shards. My love for ceramics makes me enjoy it endlessly. Every time I discover a shard with bold brushstrokes and exquisite craftsmanship, I get excited for a long time.
For centuries, these broken ceramics were buried as waste in the yellow soil. With large-scale urban construction, these ancient cultural remnants, carrying the brilliance and splendour of the past, shine alluringly in the sunlight. I bring them back to the studio and categorise them based on their age, patterns, and shapes. Facing piles of porcelain pieces that resemble the deep blue of the sea, one can’t help but think wildly, and inspiration comes like a fountain, arriving as expected. I then shape them with clay and carefully consider the right pieces that match the shape, curvature, and overall pattern. I then carefully grind, drill, and connect them with metal wire to complete the initial concept.
h: Your pieces seem to stitch together centuries of history, connecting ancient porcelain with contemporary aesthetics. How do you see the relationship between these historic materials and your vision of modern China?
LX: In my artistic creation journey, I always carefully select materials, ensuring each choice aligns with my creative philosophy. In 2008, I completed a work titled Sailing to the West, using porcelain shards with the ‘sea wave pattern’, which was popular during the mid-Ming dynasty. This pattern is a historical mark of Zheng He’s seven voyages to the West, witnessing the deep integration of China and the world during that era. In form, I borrowed the ‘suit’ shape from Western men’s clothing. As a Chinese artist born in the 1960s, I feel deeply connected to the social changes. The popularity of the suit in China not only reflects the evolution of folk aesthetics but also mirrors the influx of Western thoughts, bringing new ideas and cultural perspectives to China.
Today, the world is complex, and the flattening and fragmentation brought by artificial intelligence deeply influence and change people’s thoughts and lives. In a sense, my blue-and-white porcelain works interpret and echo the characteristics of this era. China, like its history, is constantly fragmented, constantly rebuilding, and constructing a beautiful future through painful processes! I firmly believe that China in the future will be built on the foundation of universal values and will emerge with a new appearance.
h: Creating wearable art from porcelain, a material so delicate it can shatter with a touch, seems like an act of balancing beauty on the edge of fragility. How do you reconcile the ephemeral nature of your work with the permanence you seek to convey?
LX: Porcelain, with its delicate beauty and fragile nature, and the sharp edges revealed when it breaks, constitutes a unique material presence. Using this material to create wearable art, closely interacting with the human body, is both an interesting and dangerous activity. In this material world, only thoughts transcend time limits to achieve immortality, while material fragments remain fragile and ephemeral. Transforming ancient porcelain shards into contemporary art is a pursuit of cultural heritage and eternity. Despite the passage of time, these artworks will eventually return to the earth, but the spirit of exploration has eternal significance.
h: Using discarded porcelain shards, you breathe new life into what was once broken. Is there an overarching theme of rebirth or transformation in your work, and how does this notion of ‘second chances’ manifest in the materials you choose and the stories you tell?
LX: If an artist can inject vitality into a material, it certainly depends on their method of working. Sometimes, the simpler the working method, the more directly the thoughts and emotions to be expressed. When you turn rainwater from a valley into clouds drifting outside the mountain, life energy forms. These shards are not given a second life by me, but more accurately, I awaken them. The energy of life appears in different forms in different times and spaces. ‘Rebirth’ or ‘reincarnation’ are natural processes.
h: When Lacoste approached you to create a porcelain polo shirt, what was your initial reaction, and how did you approach merging art with fashion in this collaboration?
LX: In every era, those with exceptional insights always enthusiastically embrace the forefront thoughts, unique art forms, and advanced technologies of their time. The blue-and-white porcelain wearable series appeared on the contemporary Chinese art stage in the early 21st century and attracted global attention with its unique charm.
In 2009, when Lacoste, known for its innovative spirit and unique style, extended an olive branch for collaboration, my first reaction was: ‘I have been seen by the world’. The collaboration with Lacoste allowed me to realise my vision of ‘wearing’ art: when models walked the runway wearing polo shirts carefully designed with blue-and-white porcelain shards, the ‘novel, unique, exotic, and rich in the cultural atmosphere’ immediately broke the boundary between fashion and art, bringing a unique landscape to this familiar world. Fashion, through art, added a deeper meaning.
Classical, 2008
Song Period shards
Untitled, 2021
Qing Dynasty porcelain shards, stainless steel resin models
Photography by LI YIFAN
private collection
Photography by GAO YANG
h: In many ways, your artworks resemble intricate musical compositions – each porcelain shard a note, each movement a rhythm. How do you think of the overall ‘score’ of a piece when creating? Is there a certain flow or harmony you try to achieve in each installation?
LX: The shape of an artwork must contain the beauty of rhythm and melody. The connection between different-shaped porcelain pieces, the ups and downs of the form, and the metaphors in the patterns must all be reflected in each shard. This is similar to the brushstrokes in oil painting; each stroke not only needs to balance the colours but also considers the shaping of the form while solving the harmony between the whole and the parts. Under my careful control, porcelain pieces transition in form, carrying complex changes in patterns, creating an unconventional joy. The artistic charm embodied in this transition and fluctuation is an important manifestation of the connotation of my work.
h: Porcelain, in its fragility, reminds us of the impermanence of all things. In your art, how do you find beauty in the cracks and breaks? Is there a sense of completeness within the imperfections?
LX: Porcelain, with its fragility, symbolises impermanence, fleeting beauty, and transience. In the face of fragmentation, we must calmly accept, respect, and revere it, while upholding our inner truth amid impermanence. In my artistic practice, cracks and breaks are no longer flaws; they have become carriers of stories, witnesses of time, and sources of the unique beauty of the artwork.
I explore these traces, transforming them into the language of the work’s form. The marks of history are presented in the work. The creative process is one of facing difficulties and reshaping a new life. By reassembling these fragments, I am, in fact, collaborating with countless ancient folk artists to complete a work that spans centuries. This new work transcends its original material form and historical positioning as a traditional craft. These shards are given new life in the work. In the process of reconstruction and recreation, they are no longer chaotic fragments but become messengers that transcend time and space. Each piece is a profound reflection on traditional ceramic art, as well as an enrichment of aesthetics. In this process, porcelain’s damage is no longer an endpoint but the starting point for infinite possibilities. They achieve sublimation from brokenness to aesthetics, from singularity to diversity, and from past to future in the expression of art.
Light Fades into the Rainbow, 2007
Ming and Qing period pottery shards
Light Fades into the Rainbow, 2007
Ming and Qing period pottery shards
Images courtesy of LI XIAOFENG and RED GATE GALLERY, Beijing
