Chair man turns the tables on convention

King is designed by Shao Fan and based on a traditional round chair (yuan yi). [Provided to China Daily]

Chinese sculptor and painter Shao Fan's "deconstructed" chairs are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

By joining the parts of chairs of contrasting style, the design of Shao's chairs are innovative while using traditional binding methods. The materials used in Shao's chairs are not "noble" woods such as huali or teak, but rather those used more commonly in furniture in the north of China, such elm or catalpa.

Shao's creations are known to bridge the division between fine art and applied art. The chairs may be regarded as sculpture or conceptual art, yet sometimes remain functional. His works, King, Kun, Moon and Wei are based on his humorous take on modern man's fascination with the logographic nature of Chinese characters. The chairs are modeled to be reminiscent of Chinese ideograms, and sometimes the chairs do end up resembling the logograms they were based on.

His art is also a tongue-in-cheek commentary against the common practice of antique dealers who purchase modern reproductions and reconstruct them to pass off as the genuine article.

Date: Ongoing

Venue: Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Website: www.vam.ac.uk