Ox – Design Trust Futures Studio

Ox

From Sun to Moon

Designer-mentee: Ken Chow
Collective Master-mentors: Daisy Wang, Freeman Lau
Lead Curator: Marisa Yiu

L 30 x W 10 x H 10 cm
Wood

“A day without working is a day without eating” said Zen Master Baizhang. Cows are diligent, endurance and guileless, while farmers work from dawn to dusk. It is said that the agrarian society embodies the spirit of cows.
Lo Pan Pillow is a traditional woodwork of more than a thousand years. It is presented in the shape of a horn, typifying the spirits of cows. Made of rosewood, the pillow’s reddish color symbolizes the colors of the sky during sunrise and sunset. The gold gilding on the rim echoes the Project Twelve Ox precedent by the late master Cheong Yee.
From sunrise to sunset;
From work to rest;
That is the nature of life.

Design Process

 

"I am a woodworker who specializes in traditional techniques, thus the choice of wood as the material for my work. I chose the Lu Pan Pillow as the subject, where you use chisels and handsaws to meticulously separate one piece of wood into two. In terms of material, I chose rosewood over siamese wood and Japanese cypress because its red hue reminds people of the colour of twilight. At last I added a layer of gold foil, both to accentuate the 'horn' of the ox and to pay tribute to Master Cheung’s 'Yeeox'." - Ken Chow

Project Twelve

 

Yeeox by Cheung Yee (2009)

“Yeeox” is named “yeeox” because Cheung Yee himself is the second eldest in his family (two is pronounced as “yee” in Cantonese) and coincidentally, the ox also comes second in the twelve zodiacs. “Yeeox” is sculpted with utmost faithfulness to Cheung’s paper prototype preserving the delicacy of human touch of the artist’s hands and the modesty of the buffalo.

Remarks: The late Cheung Yee, the creator of “Yeeox”, is not involved in Design Trust Futures Studio 2022. His work “Yeeox” serves as the inspiration of the new interpretation in Design Trust Futures Studio 2022.