qīqíqǐqì Studio is a platform for making and thinking, grounded in material exploration and critical cultural inquiry.
Working with natural lacquer on fibre-based materials, we focus on material agency and on how materials guide the making process and co-shape form. This perspective opens up new ways of thinking about how aesthetic values and cultural narratives are formed.
Our practice includes object-led material experiments and publishing projects. We emphasise process and openness, and explore how working through materials can activate different ways of sensing and narrating the world.
>> more
qīqíqǐqì Shop translates the studio’s explorations into everyday forms. Centring on natural lacquer as its core material, it develops functional objects including homeware, lacquer paper, wearable lacquer pieces and horsehair brushes.
Through our own techniques, these objects reveal paradoxical qualities that appear metallic yet remain light, creating sensory tension and reopening a primal tactile connection between people and materials.
At a time when technology smooths over sensory experience, qīqíqǐqì Shop hopes these works can revive tactile memory and embodied ways of sensing.
TEAM MEMBERS
Miao Tan ARWS
(b. 1998, China)
Within qīqíqǐqì’s practice, Miao works primarily at the generative stages of making. With an intuitive sensitivity to materials and a background in painting and sculpture, she brings an acute awareness to texture and to the ways forms are structured.
Miao approaches process as an open field, guided by the material’s unpredictability and movement. Making, for her, is a sustained state of practice rather than a linear pursuit of outcomes, grounded in flow and vitality.
Miao was educated in both China and the UK, holding a BA in Oil Painting from Minzu University of China and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (RCA). She is an Associate Member of the Royal Watercolour Society (ARWS) and a recipient of the 2023 New Graduate Award.
Siying Cui
(b. 1996, China)
Siying develops qīqíqǐqì’s visual and spatial language, articulating how each object conveys its material logic and sensory presence. Her practice bridges design and contemporary art, drawing on visual system and material awareness to shape how objects are perceived, handled and situated in space.
Siying holds a BA in Environmental Design from Beijing University of Technology, and an MA in Contemporary Art Practice (CAP) from the Royal College of Art (RCA).
Working cross branding, publishing, and spatial design, Siying builds qīqíqǐqì’s identity as a coherent material discourse, where visual clarity, spatial composition and tactile sensibility operate together to frame how materials encounter the body and everyday life.