Reviving Craft brings China's living traditions to Somerset House

Among the many events at London Design Festival, one free exhibition at Somerset House offered something different from the usual launches: a meditation. Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind opened on 16 September and ran until 27 September. It brought together more than 60 artists and makers working with Chinese craft traditions.

Craft as a state of mind

The title points to the central idea. A crafted object can carry something of the attention, discipline and inner life of the person who made it. The curators drew on Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist thought to frame the relationship between maker and material. The exhibition unfolded in three movements:

• Clear the Mind began with works inspired by mountains, stones, water and landscape. Forms were kept minimal so that texture, translucency and light could do the talking.
• Refine the Mind looked at making as transformation. Ceremonial vessels, formal garments and ritual tools sat alongside furniture and metalwork, linking the repetition of carving and shaping to the idea of shaping oneself.
• Nourish the Mind came closest to daily life, bringing in music, opera, food culture and traditional medicine. Sound, taste and touch joined sight.

Materials, old and unexpected

The range of materials was the show's delight. Zhi Min's Moon (2023) is a large blue form in ceramic and metal. Rosalie Huang's embroidered wedding dress (2019) combines silk jacquard, gold thread and pearl embroidery with Chaozhou techniques. Shuang Xi's Soft Monolith (2026) is a sculptural mass of Xiangyunsha silk, tie-dye and velvet ornaments.

Some of the most memorable pieces used things you'd never expect to see sculpted. Ouyang Wendong's Silent Coil (2022) is made from mixed incense. Huang Lu's Symbiosis of Chrysanthemums II (2026) uses the rice-paper plant to make an intricate white bloom.

Part of a travelling series

The London show is the latest chapter in an international series. It previously appeared at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2024 and at Palazzo Serbelloni in Milan in 2025. The London edition was curated by Su Dan and the journalist and curator Yang Lan.

Why it resonates now

This autumn has seen craft discussed everywhere, from data on booming hobby searches to brands offering visible mending. Reviving Craft added depth to that conversation. It suggested that making things slowly isn't just a hobby or a fashion. In many cultures, it's a way of paying attention.

Bring a little of that into your space with objects and images that reward a long look: banded vases, rows of shells, a single flower study. Quiet things, made with care.