Lee Pei-Chi
“Pei-Chi Lee is a creative maker and an illustrator, who lives and works around good people, good food and good times.
She makes works that are inspired by the unexpected narratives that are found in relationships between people and the environment. Using a sense of humour and a whimsical aesthetic throughout her practice, Pei-Chi likes to use a wide range of materials to create kinetic movement to tell stories with an emphasis on tactility and interaction with the viewers.
Her design philosophy always explores the idea of how to use playful and whimsical approaches to change our surroundings thereby adding a little tweak in life, as well as making people see their daily life in a different way. In her MA dissertation, she raised a discussion on why is the concept of playfulness in public spaces vital to our daily life. The exercise deeply informed Pei-Chi’s ideology and allowed her to broadly explore the idea that “playfulness displays strong relations with well-being.”
In Pei-Chi’s MA final major project,“Tell me your secrets and I will tell you mine”, she is interested in how people piled up their own space with style and the stories behind it.
She takes random shapes from those places we would never pay attention to it, those stuff that are personal, highly familiar or utterly disregarded. She removes them from their conventional context, placing them into entirely new settings and changing what they have become entirely. In order to make people to spotlight the beauty of banal and start seeing their daily life in different ways. As well taking structure reference from furniture as a metaphor, playing with the idea of “To hide/ to reveal”, making kinetic sculpture that creates unexpected movement within the environment.
The milestone of the relationship is the moment when you start sharing secrets, so does your life. She believes when you start appreciating what is around you, they will give you feedback too.
She studied MA Textiles Mixed Media at Royal College of Art and BA Fashion Textiles at London College of Fashion and has since exhibited internationally in group shows as well done a variety of collaboration projects around the topic of playful urban space and wellbeing. 2019, Pei-Chi is selected as the residency artist of "Bamboo Curtain Studio International Residency Exchange Program" collaborating with TIFA Working Studios (IN).
Collaborative Organization
Works in residency
Play Corner : a fun corner that offering residents an opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle.
A public space is a place that is generally open and accessible to everyone. It can be a bridge between people’s work and home life, providing the channels for movement, the nodes of communication, and the common grounds for play and relaxation. It plays a key role in forming a cohesive society.
“To play is to be in the world; playing is a form of understanding what surrounds us and a way of engaging with others. Play goes beyond games; it is a mode of being human.” - Miguel Sicart, Play Matters.
Sicart indicated the importance of playful approaches in our everyday environment and how they can impact on our daily life. How about we infuse a sense of fun into urban spaces? Everyday infrastructures in the city are perceived and can be transformed. Play is an experience, it encourages friendly connection within society, public spaces in the city provide opportunities for escaping by the playful interpositions. Furthermore, through creating serendipitous discovery, it encourages city dwellers to break out of the comfort zone, and remember the joy of frivolous experimentation.
