Description
Cover design / Couverture: Azuma Makoto, Iced Flowers, 2017
Preview of the Duo Design Award Asian Aesthetics here
Art and Design on Opposite Sides of the World: Asia’s Unfolding Identities
In its exploration of contemporary Asian aesthetics, TLmag embraced a slower pace, adopting the kind of thinking and sensibility which foster a dialogue between East and West. In Eastern philosophy, wabi sabi, so aptly described by writer Leonard Koren, brings humans and nature together, while the Western world seems often to separate them. When those forces are united, the creative process focuses on the essentials. The universe of forms—versatile, iridescent, monolithic and textured in the Winter Forms selection—that TLmag has emphasized is surprising, bespeaking poetry and the imaginary. Original reporting on and enlightening interviews with creative luminaries in Asia and others for whom the culturally varied continent has been an important influence immerse the eye and mind in a culture of art, architecture and design, leaving you feeling like you have travelled to new places. This fall-winter issue of TLmag is best defined by an interest in the moment and in plays of light, transparency, fragility, softness and extreme elegance uniting humans and their environment. Art and design from Asia or works inspired by the formal and holistic language of Asian aesthetics come to life through a generation of emerging designers and architects on the international stage. Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Taiwanese designers and artisans rub shoulders with Nordic artists, expressing themselves forcefully and rather sculpturally, defying traditional scales for objects and ornaments. In its historical, artistic and spiritual exchanges with the West, Asia will continue to be a source of fascination with a clear and tangible impact – Lise Coirier
