naihan li renders OMA's CCTV headquarters as a wooden storage cabinet

naihan li renders OMA’s CCTV headquarters as a wooden storage cabinet

‘I am monument‘ is an ongoing series in which naihan li has rendered iconic pieces of architecture — the new york stock exchange, the pentagon, UN headquarters — as tangible furniture designs, allowing us to reimagine how we look at the world in a playful way.

‘I am a monument – CCTV’ by naihan li

on the occasion of design miami/ 2014, gallery ALL offers an excerpt of li’s body of work within the design curio/ program — an exhibition platform invites curators, designers, gallerists and innovators to present cabinets of curiosity throughout the event.

naihan li scales down one of beijing’s most iconic pieces of architecture into a furniture piece

‘I am a monument – CCTV’ is a 1/ 100 scale model of OMA’s ‘CCTV headquarters’ in beijing, envisioned by li as a discreet wooden cabinet. the object speaks of modern china, and people’s need to possess icons and monuments which they can live with on a domestic scale. this desire can also be seen in chinese traditional paintings, playing on the idea of scale from a subjective point of view while minimizing the universe. the animated installation sees fog, representing the billowing haze that chokes beijing’s wintery landscape, cast over ‘I am a monument – CCTV’, set amongst chinese bonsai shrubs that were the impetus for the series, both traditional and digital carpentry tools used in the work’s construction, and personal items such as clothing; transporting the public icon into the artist’s private world.

the storage areas are seamlessly hidden within the architecture of the cabinet

a variety of storage spaces are housed within the furniture piece

OMA’s CCTV headquarters rendered as a tangible furniture piece

‘I am a monument – CCTV’ even exhibits the gridded glass pattern of the building which it references

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