2 days ago
Not A Brand. Not A Studio. Keimfleck Is Something Else Entirely.
Handcuff by Keimfleck
Who says there's no romance in club land anymore? Not so, Chengyi Qian and Suzhi Xu. They met in All Club, an underground nightspot in Shanghai, and haven't looked back. They are now Keimfleck—one of China's new wave of provocative design brands challenging cultural norms.
Keimfleck's practice operates at the intersection of material research, socio-cultural memory, and esoteric structure resulting in contemporary design pieces that include furniture, art pieces, and wearable objects. Their work is inspired by their 'narrative-driven designs' which means that the output often originates from field-based investigations and lived experience.
One piece of art, the Cutting Board Violin, originated from a period spent living in one of the city's traditional longtang houses—residential spaces that foregrounded communal living by imposing shared kitchens. In these compact environments, lives intertwine more freely and openly—a fact that is disappearing in contemporary society. Over the decade, there has been an increase in the demolition of these developments and with it, an erasure of the way of life facilitated by these living arrangements.
The duo had the chance to live in one of these longtangs for around two months, Qian outlines on a call. 'When it's dinner time, the residents all come into the tiny alleyways in the corridor and use the kitchen together. So it's quite chaotic.' In the midst of this chaos, one day they found a discarded cutting board which formed 'the first material' or starting point of a new work.
The inspiration behind turning it into a musical instrument evolved from the poor insulation: the couple could hear their next-door neighbor rehearse through the walls while downstairs, and their co-resident could be heard hammering daily in his hardware store. Thus the novel idea for a violin grew organically from these encounters; they even left the knife scars or 'life marks' gathered over the years in full view.
Chengyi Qian and Suzhi Xu are Shanghai-based design duo Keimfleck
The Jade Coffee Table was the result of a two-month field trip to one of China's biggest manufacturing cities in Guangdong province, Dongguan. There, Keimfleck realized the scale of manufacturing waste and offcuts over 30 years worth and set about drawing attention to it. Impressive for a design duo with, seemingly, more in common with Shanghai's design elite than discarded matter.
'Although these factories are joined together by a city-scale manufacturing chain and highly economically interdependent, it dawned on us that their waste management was entirely siloed. Neighboring factories don't communicate,' Xu, who is from Souzhou, explains. After various meetings, much tea-drinking, and a lot of persistence, they landed upon the oversized role played by the humble tea table in this dialogue. Every deal is stuck at these tables.
The resulting artwork was constructed from a large discarded piece of Afghan jade and aluminum scraps from a nearby metal factory. According to the duo, the contrast between the opulent, smooth texture of the jade top and the industrial frame illustrates the two sides of Chinese architecture: understated luxury and utilitarian mass production.
Keimfleck's Jade Coffee Table is based on an investigation into factory culture and waste practices in Dongguan
Keimfleck's work is already making its mark on critics. 'Undoubtedly edgy' is what Marin Mornieux—a private collector and curator based in Paris—calls their practice. 'On one hand, their inspirations come from objects that are no longer around, destroyed by the aggressive replacement of everything,' he says. 'On the other side, unexpected combinations and attention to detail bring an uncanny feeling that is truly seductive— much like a foreigner's first experience in China.'
The result is, Mornieux thinks, peculiar and establishes Keimfleck as 'a fascinating and refreshing design proposition'—one that is rooted in traditional Chinese culture but with global appeal.
This season, the studio has dipped its toes into fashion with the release of a striking collection of wearable accessories.
It's a natural move; the brand has already exhibited at Hangzhou's retail and gallery space B1OCK and dressed massive stars like the rapper Lil Ghost. Qian is drawn to visual communications, especially photography. Xu's architecture degree at University College London put him in close quarters to London's Central Saint Martins fashion campus: 'I would often go and see the summer shows and I had friends there who would take me to visit their studios.'
The capsule continues to foreground the use of regionally characteristic materials such as jade, cinnabar, porcelain, and Asian cultural symbols like 玄武 (the Black Tortoise) and 青龙 (the Azure Dragon). Standouts include pieces like the chic Art Deco Uniform Chokers which echo the scarves worn by schoolchildren in China and the leather Mandala Bracecuffs in vivid colors inspired by Tibet's Thangka paintings and Ankh iconography.
And it's going down well. While they admit they expected their mission of incorporating traditional Chinese symbolism into contemporary design to resonate, even they are surprised by the feedback. As Qian exclaims: 'What's really exciting is shipping these bold industrial accessories to areas of rural China. We never expected that!"
Keimfleck's art deco red uniform choker made from aluminium, leather and brass echoes the red scarves worn by schoolchildren in China.
