Living Sprits

Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London
9–18 May 2025

In the traditional Bai courtyard dwelling of San Fang Yi Zhaobi, Si He Wu Tianjin (Three chambers with one screen wall, four harmonies and five courtyards),”  This architectural form is enclosed yet not confined. The “Tianjin (courtyards)” are woven like looms, threading starlight, and the “Zhaobi (screen wall)” stands as a silent threshold. Within this layered living, crafting is not merely a technique — it emerges as a profound poetics of dwelling, binding people, landscape, spirit, and cyclical time into the quiet rituals of daily life.

This exhibition unfolds across four chapters — Earthborn, Dwelling Within, Bond and Vow, and Whispering Remains — each forming the enclosed rhythm within space. Together, they trace the cycle of life and the footsteps of the nature spirit flow in between. Through carving, stitching, shaping, and dyeing, Bai artisans sketch out the world — and in doing so, they quietly echo the breath of an unspoken but enduring communion between human and spirit.