Bodiless Project:

The Nirvana of Chinese Contemporary Art and Lacquer

“Tuotai” (脱胎), known in lacquer craftsmanship as the bodiless technique, refers to a distinctive process in traditional lacquer making. Upon a clay or plaster core, artisans apply layer upon layer of fabric and lacquer. Once the lacquer has hardened and taken shape, the inner core is removed, leaving behind a light yet resilient lacquer shell. After repeated polishing and coating, the process ultimately produces a lacquer object that is both delicate and remarkably strong. It is a transformation from inner core to outer form—the original structure is stripped away, and a new form comes into being.

This ancient craft term offers a compelling metaphor for a central question: how can Chinese contemporary art and design, within the context of globalization, free themselves from established conceptual frameworks, rediscover their traditional roots, and enter into dialogue with the world through new artistic languages?

Lacquer, as a creative medium unique to China, carries both a distinct material presence and a profound cultural lineage. It is not merely a material, but also a philosophy—a philosophy of time, patience, and the mutual cultivation between human beings and nature. A new generation of Chinese artists now approaches lacquer with the courage of transformation, expanding the boundaries traditionally associated with the medium. Across painting, objects, installation, and sculpture, they explore the renewed possibilities of this ancient material.

In September 2024, the first exhibition of the Bodiless Project opened during Paris Design Week and subsequently traveled to Brussels, Belgium, and Barcelona, Spain. Over the course of five exhibitions, the concentrated presentation of works created with a single material by five artists generated significant international attention. This was not only an exploration of artistic innovation through material, but also an important practice through which Chinese contemporary art seeks its own position and mode of expression within the global cultural landscape.

Zhong Sheng has worked with lacquer for more than thirty years. After spending five and a half years in Korea studying the craft of mother-of-pearl inlay, he returned to China and devoted many years to restoration work and the creation of lacquer objects. In 2020, he turned toward contemporary artistic practice—an evolution made possible by three decades of accumulated experience. In his works, lacquer, tile ash, hemp cloth, metal powder, mother-of-pearl, and turquoise intertwine and coexist, breaking the traditional boundaries of lacquer art while generating distinctive textures and subtle plays of light and shadow.

Sun Wenjia regards lacquer as “a material of time that can never be fully domesticated.” His Material Evolution series explores the intrinsic language of lacquer itself, preserving individual consciousness in the form of time capsules. In his 2020 performance work Material Evolution M02, an object drifted along the Min River for forty-five days, traveling 577 kilometers. Invisible time acquired a tangible trajectory, while the stories of people living along the riverbanks were unexpectedly recorded.

Liu Lijun’s Suspension series integrates the visual language of Western sculpture and installation. Through flowing curves, she evokes the human body, garden rock formations, and traces of industrial memory. By turning the inner “skeleton” outward, she creates a shifting relationship between interior and exterior—a dialectical structure that resonates with shared experiences of life.

Ou Tingzhu takes the “tower” as his central motif, exploring the universal human impulse to project reverence and power onto objects. By stripping away the utilitarian function of traditional ramie-reinforced lacquerware, he creates independent lacquer sculptures through gestures of cutting and the imagery of dust, allowing art to quietly return to everyday environments.

Yao Bangliang is fascinated by the luster and plasticity of lacquer. His Skin series returns to the essence of the material, exploring spatial expression through color, gloss, and form. The works subtly reveal the presence of objects within space, capturing the quiet moment of exchange between object and viewer.

In 2026, the second edition of the Bodiless Project arrives as scheduled. Building upon the five artists of the first edition, eight new explorers now join this journey.

Chen Wencai’s works unfold through careful carving and measured restraint, quietly infusing a gentle poetic sensibility. Fang Zhixiang moves from observational sketches of everyday objects toward abstraction. Once objects lose their practical function, what remains are relationships of point, line, plane, and color. Rao Pengcheng departs from the dense and solemn tradition of lacquer painting, presenting instead a warm and refined Eastern minimalism distinct from the hard-edged industrial aesthetics of the West.

Xu Jiaying has spent more than a decade restoring ancient artworks. By combining traditional elements with contemporary contexts, he articulates reflections on Eastern philosophy and the experience of life. Chen Jianbing’s talisman series presents abstract expression through calligraphic gestures, where lines flow with continuity, rhythm, and vitality. Chen Huanping’s works point toward a “realm of stillness”—not the absence of sound, but a state that contains an inner force of expression.

Liang Xingmei draws inspiration from the moment of plant germination, allowing the luster of lacquer to resonate with the vitality of nature. Li Ran approaches objects through the process of gewu—the investigation of things—seeking to uncover deeper meanings and to pursue a harmony between inner and outer, object and self.

Thirteen artists, thirteen ways of engaging in dialogue with lacquer. Though they share the same material, each pursues a distinct creative direction, unique technical explorations, and newly developed languages of expression. Their works remind us that tradition is not a static inheritance, but an energy that can be continuously reactivated; that materials are not passive mediums, but living partners in dialogue; and that Chinese contemporary art is not a follower of Western trends, but an independent narrative with its own lineage.

After the shedding of the core, what remains is not an empty shell, but new life.

Perhaps this is precisely what this moment calls for: amid the tensions between globalization and locality, and between tradition and the contemporary, to discover an artistic path that belongs both to China and to our time.