Li Hui V.S. Qiu Hao

Li Hui: If you are lost on an island, what would you do?
Qiu Hao: I would enjoy the quietness there. I would try to survive, not to leave, but start a new life.

Li Hui: Do you think fashion has its spiritual aspect?
Qiu Hao: I once believed that fashion is a kind of spirit, and fashion means freedom and personality. Now, I don’t know what fashion is. Maybe it is just vanity.
 
Li Hui: If you are asked to design clothing for a kind of animal, what animal would you choose?
Qiu Hao: Tian Yuan has asked the same question. I have always wanted to make a sweater for my cat.

Li Hui: What’s your favorite way of communication?
Qiu Hao: I like to communicate through image. As my homepage says, image is a simple way of saying a complicated thing.

Li Hui: What would you do if you are not a designer?
Qiu Hao: I would do flower gardening, and focus on rare flowers.
 
Li Hui: If you can make only one work, what topic would you choose?
Qiu Hao: I would make it without any topic or intent, which I don’t know what it is.

Qiu Hao V.S. Li Hui

Qiu Hao: What’s the relationship between art and technology?
Li Hui: When a work of art relies on a certain technology to be shown, they become integral parts of the whole. Then they are naturally meaningful to each other.

Qiu Hao: Are you religious? It seems that your work Next Life is with a religious flavor.
Li Hui: I’m not religious. I tried to build a sort of ritual with Next Life. And I wanted it to transcend visual aesthetics.

Qiu Hao: What’s you motivation of making a work?
Li Hui: There is no particular motivation. I’m just driven by inspiration.

Qiu Hao: What’s your favorite way of communication?
Li Hui: To talk face-to-face.

Qiu Hao: What would you do if you were not an artist?
Li Hui: I would be a diver.

Qiu Hao: What do you think of fur?
Li Hui: Fur is a kind of special texture, which brings to the people a sense of exaggeration.

Fan Ran V.S. Unmask

 Fan Ran: What will you do if your ideas are different?
Unmask: Since its founding in 2002, our team has had built strong collective awareness. Our differences are ignorable, because we all care much about the team as a whole.

Fan Ran: How long does it take to finish a work from conception to completion?
Unmask: Typically we make a new series every two years.

Fan Ran: What inspired you to create Semitransparent and Zero Degree?
Unmask: There was no concrete inspiration. They represented the accumulation of our experiences. If there is inspiration, probably it is time and space.
The Semitransparent series depicts an unbalanced and fragile environment full of unpredictability. The Zero Degree series depicts three humanoid creatures in isolated space. With the removal of the dramatic relationship typical of men, what’s left is the distinct attributes of the creatures and the balance among them. Our works are surrealistic and we are accustomed to describe reality with virtual methodology.

Fan Ran: Are the prototypes of the roles in your works always yourselves?
Unmask: For Do You Know Unmask?, Fast Mover and Zero Degree, yes.
For Do You Know Unmask?, we designed the virtual figures based on our profiles and we specified their personalities and identities too. We tried to integrate the concept of consumption into the work, so the work might remind you of stores. Semitransparent series was finished in 2006. We designed the figures based on our own bodies and we removed the redundant parts and some visual defects. For our Zero Degree series, we were the prototype of the figures and we planted special hairs in the figures. Creatures that represented both human and human’s imagination were thus created.

Fan Ran: After watching Inception, which layer do you think you are at?
Unmask: To build dream in dream is an extremely fascinating idea. However, we want to be at the real-life layer and make the dream of Unmask come true.

Unmask V.S. Fan Ran

Unmask： What’s the most exciting thing for you as a designer?
Fan Ran ：Do shopping in the disguise of looking for inspiration.

Unmask： What’s your dressing code?
Fan Ran ：Get slim first and be able to wear anything.

Unmask：What kind of inspiration do Unmask’s works bring you?
Fan Ran ：They bring me a lot of inspiration. It is not just their works.

Unmask：Do art and fashion design share anything in common?
Fan Ran ：Both art and fashion are luxuries.

Unmask：Are you tired of fashion design year after year? How do you keep passionate?
Fan Ran ：I never feel tired. I’m always passionate about my life.

Unmask：What’s your principle of design?
Fan Ran ：Quality is as important as design.

Unmask：Do you have anything that you have planned for a long time but you have never done?
Fan Ran ：I want to go to South Africa to see penguins and go to Antarctica to see penguins.

Zhang Chi V.S. Chen Jie

Zhang Chi: What do you want to express through your works?
Chen Jie: I don’t want to express anything. I just invite the audience to experience and feel.

Zhang Chi: What are your hobbies?
Chen Jie: Listening to music, reading books, talking with others and talking with myself.

Zhang Chi: Do you like fashion?
Chen Jie: Yeah.
 
Zhang Chi: What’s your world view?
Chen Jie: I’m watching the world.

Chen Jie V.S. Zhang Chi

Chen Jie: What do you like to do in addition to fashion design?
Zhang Chi: I like doing innovative things related to music and art.

Chen Jie: Which one is more exciting, designing costume or wearing costume?
Zhang Chi: The most exciting thing for me is to wear costumes I designed.

Chen Jie: Could you talk about the exhibited costumes?
Zhang Chi: I borrow a lot of ideas from Mr. Chen, which are reflected on the outlines and colors of the costumes.

Chen Jie:  Do you like cooking?
Zhang Chi: It is too hard. I eat so fast, that it takes only five minutes to eat the food I cooked for an hour. So, I don’t cook frequently.

Chen Jie: Which question did you like most?
Zhang Chi: You just asked the question I liked the most.

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