BEAUTIFUL ESCAPE
Lv Yongzhong was invited by Hermès to design the window display for its flagship store in China from 2008 to 2010, in order to present the classic brand with Eastern handicraft and elegance.
In the matrix of 20,000 custom-made ink brushes,
A galloping horse appears like a totem.
The varied brush tips
Sketch an outline of a horse robust and tender,
Like a breeze sweeping across the field….
Memory: Hermès Window Design
A story about time
A story about memories
Time passes
At a tempo
Set by memories
Year by year
Truth emerges
Unbound by logic
A journey started and never ends
A creation constantly perfecting itself
An interplay of time and space
—— Lv Yongzhong
Lv Yongzhong knocked off these lines in 2008 when he was designing the window display for Hermès flagship store in China. The theme was “Beautiful Escape,” an interesting theme for him. Urban life calls for momentary escapes that should be beautiful and graceful.
For eight seasons from 2008 to 2010, Lv was commissioned by Hermès to design its windows. He used some of the most common materials, reconstructed their relations, and created unique visual poetry using his imagination and creativity. In his view, luxury is not necessarily associated with rare and costly materials, but can be discovered and created from the common.
“The Earth”—Mercedes-Benz Museum’s Collection
Lv Yongzhong was commissioned to create an artwork for Mercedes-Benz GLK’s art project in 2010. He used engineered wood to create a texture reminiscent of the tire tracks left by vehicles. This work was considered of the greatest Eastern philosophical beauty in the year’s GLK Design Salon.
Lv Bed
a collaboration of UK and China’s top handiwork
Savoir Beds’ Beijing Manager Peter Liu described this collaboration as a rare invitation. In the spring of 2014, Savoir Beds launched a project to collaborate with excellent designers around the world. Four designers from UK, US, France and China were eventually selected to design beds in line with the tradition and habits of their own countrymen. The bed from China became the most anticipated in the two-year collaboration.
It takes two years to finish the bed as a result of a collaboration of UK and China’s top handiwork. It is named Lv Bed, after its designer Lv Yongzhong.
Lv Bed draws inspiration from traditional Chinese couch-bed, luohan chuang. Its design is a full absorption of qi, or life forces that flow in the universe according to the belief of the Chinese. The lines of the bed are reminiscent of Tai Chi, which visualizes the movement and energy of qi. In carefully measured simplicity, Lv Bed is a peaceful unity that speaks for the Chinese philosophy of harmony.
The most extraordinary Chinese woodwork is married with Savoir Beds’ luxury mattress handiwork, and traditional aesthetics with modern technology for comfort.
When Italian Meets Chinese
Italian brand Natuzzi invited two influential Chinese artists, Lv Yongzhong and Qiu Zhijie, to participate in the project “When Italian Meets Chinese.”
Lv Yongzhong designed a sofa named “Peony Pavilion”. He outlined a Ming-style horseshoe chair reminiscent of Chinese calligraphy and painting. A surprising finishing touch was a red velvet button on the right bottom corner. Was it a seal mark often found in Chinese paintings or a naughty dimple on the face of an Italian girl?
Art creations on the Moleskine
Moleskine’s worldwide traveling project “Detour” has reached places like London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, Tokyo, Venice, etc. The session held in Shanghai in 2010 was supported by 50 world-renowned artists in different realms. Lv Yongzhong’s work was a notebook called “A Man’s Show” that recorded his random thoughts in everyday life.
