naihan li renders OMA’s CCTV headquarters as a wooden storage cabinet

 

 

 

I am monument‘ is an ongoing series in which naihan li has rendered iconic pieces of architecture — the new york stock exchange, the pentagon, UN headquarters — as tangible furniture designs, allowing us to reimagine how we look at the world in a playful way.

 

 


naihan li animates OMA’s CCTV headquarters as a wooden cabinet

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
‘I am a monument – CCTV’ by naihan li

 

 

 

on the occasion of design miami/ 2014, gallery ALL offers an excerpt of li’s body of work within the design curio/ program — an exhibition platform invites curators, designers, gallerists and innovators to present cabinets of curiosity throughout the event.

 

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
naihan li scales down one of beijing’s most iconic pieces of architecture into a furniture piece

 

 

 

‘I am a monument – CCTV’ is a 1/ 100 scale model of OMA’s ‘CCTV headquarters’ in beijing, envisioned by li as a discreet wooden cabinet. the object speaks of modern china, and people’s need to possess icons and monuments which they can live with on a domestic scale. this desire can also be seen in chinese traditional paintings, playing on the idea of scale from a subjective point of view while minimizing the universe. the animated installation sees fog, representing the billowing haze that chokes beijing’s wintery landscape, cast over ‘I am a monument – CCTV’, set amongst chinese bonsai shrubs that were the impetus for the series, both traditional and digital carpentry tools used in the work’s construction, and personal items such as clothing; transporting the public icon into the artist’s private world.

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
the storage areas are seamlessly hidden within the architecture of the cabinet

 

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
a variety of storage spaces are housed within the furniture piece

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
OMA’s CCTV headquarters rendered as a tangible furniture piece

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom
‘I am a monument – CCTV’ even exhibits the gridded glass pattern of the building which it references

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom

 

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom

naihan li OMA CCTV headquarters wood cabinet designboom

 

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naihan li OMA CCTV wooden cabinet