‘Jia-Ciasa’ honours the mundanity of daily use objects with alterable attributes

Taiwanese-Italian designer Thomas Yang’s work is typically suffused with a sentimental and meditative quality. Associated with typical diurnal activities, chores and usages, Yang’s objects at once challenge canonical aesthetics, allude to bygone designs and motifs that consequently prompt nostalgia and inspire users to view his designs not merely as functional articles but as entities to be cherished. While the product designer’s Stone Brush, which he conceptualised with Makiah Roberts, was a tool designed to help users connect with the earth by turning the mundane task of sweeping the floor into a spiritual event, Yang’s recent furniture collection is slightly more pragmatic while still embodying the tendency to enhance simple everyday tasks into cherishable rituals. This hand-made collection, called Jia-Ciasa, comprises five furniture pieces and seven wall-mounted objects.

Yang, who is trained in industrial design and object design, derives his craft and style from culture, memory and inherited techniques. Hence, the Italian designer pays special attention to crafting his pieces with the kind of care and attention that helps objects remain resilient, transform yet, stay sturdy through time and embody the same sense and sentiment of culture, memory and craft that inspires his work. “My work has become a love letter to daily use, material and deliberate detail through its exploration of hand making methods,” he shares. The Jia-Ciasa collection was conceptualised and made by Yang as part of the second iteration of The Designers’ Residency, led by the design gallery and strategy firm Colony, to introduce the works of emerging designers in the international arena.

The Jia-Ciasa collection, which comprises stationary objects for indoor spaces, embodies a sense of movement—an aspect that can be credited to the lightness of the material used, the tactility of the final pieces and their disparate features that captivate attention and impel users to interact with the pieces. The pieces that comprise the collection include Cabinet of Memories, Ama Chair, Tian Den lighting series and seven wall hooks. “The collection asks the viewer to imagine the animated objects in their mind, to wonder what may fit in certain drawers and whether the lampshade will dance as a body moves past it,” the furniture designer shares.

Cabinet of Memories, made of maple wood and cherry wood with stainless steel hinges and sterling silver fish knob, is based on the proportions of a traditional East-Asian cabinet and derived from recollections of family heirlooms. It comprises intriguing features in the form of wood splines for holding books and magazines and drawers and doors of various sizes for accommodating different kinds of objects.

The Ama Chair, on the other hand, is an embodiment of Yang’s grandmother or Ama’s attributes. A chair design with a delicate balance of opposing forces, its joinery pushes and pulls to imbue a sense of stillness in the object. “My Ama, Chin Yin Wu, was an artist, a mother, a daughter and a sister. Kind but stern, delicate but tough, thoughtful but clumsy, serious but funny; she was the person who taught me to love through acts. This chair is one interpretation of my Ama, with many more to come,” Yang shares.

The Tian Den lamp series, named after Taiwanese sky lanterns, is characterised by hand-sewn Yame Kozo Hadaura paper shades upon a structural bamboo frame. The bamboo ribs help keep the structure intact. The paper shades on the floor lamp and table lamp absorb daylight to reveal its frame, maintaining its look both, when lit and unlit. “Delicate details—wood wire coverings, an elliptical base and handmade white stone ceramic fixtures—transform the mundane task of changing a light bulb into a ritual of care,” reads an excerpt from the press release.

Lastly, the collection of seven wall hooks, namely Power of 3, Bīntáng (Rock Sugar), Casa Busetti, Jinshan South Road, Val di Non, No.15: 3rd Floor and 514, are inspired by the Shaker craft movement. The principles of utility, craftsmanship and simplicity that define the movement can be traced in Yang’s hook design system that comprises seven one-off hooks, each of which is uniquely designed to either hang individually or as part of the larger collection. The surface of the mounting plate was designed to resemble the structural wall studs.

Elaborating upon the furniture design, lamp design and hook designs for Jia-Ciasa, Yang shares, “It is born from nostalgia and imagination and is the materialisation of my philosophies of making. These works respect daily use. Each piece is made to change with time and reflect its use, becoming intrinsic to the home and thus, beautifully ordinary.”