TanTan Side Table with Lamp by Zhipeng Tan

Since graduating with an industrial design degree from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhipeng Tan has focused on the ancient technique of lost-wax casting. Through this foundry process, rich in heritage and tradition, Tan explores his interest in organic forms. Often inspired by his environmental surroundings, such as water and plants, he explores anthropomorphic themes, as well. Though trained as an industrial designer, he has become an accomplished self-taught sculptor, eagerly exploring the elastic and permeable boundaries between art and design and finding a harmonious fusion of sculpture and furniture, provocative objects of both beauty and utility.

In spite of his rigorous training in computer modeling, Tan develops all of his concepts exclusively with hand drawing, preferring the direct connection to his work that sketching provides. As he likes to say, “Every line in the artwork is touched by me.” Most of his work is hand-sculpted in clay, and the final work is achieved through casting, hammering, welding and polishing. He has chosen brass as his preferred medium in part because of its connection to historical tradition, but most especially because of its warm color, rich luster and versatility.

With the debut of his TanTan series he has begun to explore a fusion of these elements, in a sense creating new shapes for life to take, forms that are both extraterrestrial and surreal. Through his new series he conjures a playful world in which the antics and activities of the little figures—TanTans—freeze in snapshot moments in which their postures combine to form a table or a lamp. Tan sees them as an expression of his inner life and his pursuit of happiness; they are boundlessly optimistic, friendly visitors from outside our own time and place.