
Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind
Zhi Min, Shuang Xi, Ouyang Wendong, Huang Lu, Rosalie Huang, Ren Bo, Tang Zhenzhen

Somerset House
Strand, London WC2R 1LA, UK WC2R 1LA
Strand entrance 8am-11pm, The Courtauld Gallery 10am-6pm, New Wing 8am-11pm
Admission
Free Admission
About
Across stoneware, ceramics, glass, jewellery, textiles, and furniture, _Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind_ explores what craft means – culturally, philosophically and materially. It traces China's living craft heritage, not as a preserved artefact but as an ongoing conversation between traditional and contemporary design. Digital and immersive elements run throughout, bringing heritage techniques into the present through modern technology and imagination. Rooted in Eastern thought, it draws on Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism to argue that objects reflect the mind: not just made but thought into being, carrying the inner life of their maker. _Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind_ offers a different way of looking, one that challenges assumptions about the relationship between maker, object, and viewer. Structured around three inward states – _Chengxin_ (clearing the mind), _Xiuxin_ (refining the mind), and _Yangxin_ (nourishing the mind) – the exhibition suggests that craft is neither a relic of the past nor a luxury of the present, but a living, evolving practice. _Reviving Craft_ is an Official Special Project Partner of London Design Festival 2026.