Like many other small communities in China, Dafang, a village in Jiangxi province, had generations of social and cultural value but risked becoming left even more isolated as more of the country’s population moves to major cities. To help resolve this problem, the local government asked NEXT architects to propose a new masterplan that would give the village a new lease of life.

Artist Herman Lamers invited a group of artists to work in this village: Paul Segers, Andre Pielage, NicoParlevliet , Wouter Klein Velderman, Maartje Korstanje, and Tanja Smeets.

For this project I was interested in working with materials from the surroundings. I worked  in one of the old abandoned houses on my projects. Porcelain city Jingdezhen was nearby. I found big green beads, with a diameter of 10 cm in a ceramic Company in Jingdezhen. With Cotton Ropes I knotted the work together, into these growing structures. With left over lids and vases poured in concrete I made small isles of white and blue ceramics on the floor of the house. The history of these blue paintings was inspiring for this work, but also the different ways of drawing and the combination of several structures in one installation.