'Moon'
Chair
Designed by Shao Fan
Beijing, China
1996
MDF, Catalpa and elm 
Museum No. FE 329-2005
Gift of Ms Pearl Lam

In the 'Chairs(?)' series, Shao Fan plays with modern man's fascination with the Chinese language and Chinese ideograms or written characters.

The parts that are used to make 'Moon' come from a variety of the 'guan mao' (Official's Hat) style chair, shown below, so called because of its resemblance to the shape of a scholars' headgear.

The design is based very much on the Chinese ideogram and the frontal view of the chair evokes the image of the crescent moon. However the seat breaks away from the continuity of the upright back and comes forward towards the viewer.

By adding a third dimension to the structure, Shao Fan made the imagery into a physical concrete object, giving full proportion to a two-dimensional imagery.

'Moon' is currently on display in the Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art.