Quality Design (Art) Made in China

My favorite find at Design Art London were Shao Fan's chairs at Contrast Gallery from Shanghai:

Shao takes original pieces of Ming furniture and deconstructs them, adding modern materials, so that what you end up with is a chair that is half antique, half contemporary/industrial aesthetic. Each concept is editioned, but since a unique Ming piece is used in each version, there is something different about every finished work — which is an interesting variation on the "limited edition." The piece pictured about is £35,000 and, as of Sunday afternoon, hadn't sold.

I've already talked about the success that contemporary Chinese art had at the London auctions last week. Demand was, in fact, so high that Larry Warsh not once, but twice offered more than the customary bid increase on pieces by Zheng Fanzhi and Liu Ye — and was, nonetheless outbid in the end. With contemporary Chinese art continuing its ascent, I wonder if we'll see more Chinese "design art" like Contrasts was showing? "Made in China" could take on a whole new meaning.