Zi Studio

Index

Rehoming DunDun

Community-Based, Social Practice, Publication, Furniture

2024-ongoing

Rehoming DunDun follows the journey of DunDun 墩墩. In the summer of 2024, Zijun Zhao encountered DunDun as an everyday object created and used by local residents in response to the spatial and social changes brought by rural urbanization. Made from discarded construction foam and recycled fabric, DunDun carries the memory of daily life, displacement, and adaptation.

In New York, the project continues through a process of “rehoming” inviting people to “adopt” DunDun, use it, care for it, and continue its story in new homes. Through this process, DunDun becomes a social connector between Dameng and New York.

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A Wasted Sidetable

Furniture, Crafts

2025

What happens when a “drunk” furniture maker gets their hands on a traditional side table? The Wasted Sidetable—a delightful chaos of curves and unpredictability. Straying from precision, it embraces the beauty of imperfection, turning every wobble and curve into a playful statement of carefree craftsmanship.

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A Limping Cabinet

Furniture, Crafts

2025

A Limping Cabinet is part of a series exploring imperfection and craftsmanship. Growing up, I was told I wasn’t suited to be a craftsman due to my clumsiness. Through struggles with precision, this piece became a way to reconcile with myself. The uneven structure and perfectly parallel shelf turn mistakes into strength, embracing imperfection as a creative force.

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A Broken Sidetable

Furniture, Crafts

2025

A Broken Sidetable continues my journey with craftsmanship. Building on A Broken Bench, this piece reflects a shift from confronting my mistakes to learning how to live with them. Rather than correcting imperfections, I allow them to shape the structure of the object, turning what once felt broken into a steady and functional presence.

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A Broken Bench

Furniture, Crafts

2025

A Broken Bench reflects my journey with craftsmanship. Growing up, I was often told I wasn’t suited to be a craftsman due to my clumsiness and carelessness. Through struggles and anxiety in fine woodworking, where precision is key, this piece became a way to reconcile with myself. It draws inspiration from my mistakes, turning my imperfections into creative strength.

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From Shade to Light

Installation, Sculpture, Crafts

2025

This work is based on my return to my childhood home in Tangshan, where a dead tree once stood at the entrance. My father used to read beneath its shade as a child. I transformed the tree into a reading light, allowing daytime shade to reappear as nighttime illumination. Through reading, the work reactivates family memory and gives new life to a tree that no longer grows.

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Embryo Series

Furniture, Sculpture, Crafts

2025

The Embryo series explores the early stages of life through furniture, with a chair, table, and the "Embryo" piece. Made with fundamental mortise-and-tenon joints, these works embody the potential for growth, capturing furniture at the start of its life — still forming, still becoming.

The series reflects a dialogue between tradition, material, and the body, where each object is an active participant in the world, full of potential for change and connection.

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Untitled

Furniture

2024

This work draws from the abandoned scaffolding I found in my hometown of Tangshan, an industrial city once defined by steel. The rusted, heavy materials reflect the city’s industrial past and its gradual decline. By repurposing these remnants, I connect the memory of a fading era to a new form, giving meaning to what has been left behind.

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Across the Corner

Installation

2024

Separated by the turn, bodies remain unseen yet connected through movement and response. The corner shifts from a boundary into a shared condition, where distance becomes familiarity and relationships form through presence rather than sight.

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A Softened Corner

Furniture, Sculpture, Photography

2024

This piece reflects my ambivalent relationship with corners—rigid and cold, yet quietly magnetic. By softening angular geometry, the work transforms harsh intersections into a spatial embrace. It examines how furniture and space shape one another, and how their dialogue can produce a sense of shelter, comfort, and presence.

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Growing Form: Round-back Chair

Sculpture, Furniture, Crafts

2024

The Round-back Chair is treated as an early form within the Growing Form series. Using traditional joinery and continuous curvature, the chair emphasizes unity and flow over completion. Working at a reduced scale allows making itself to become the method, exploring Ming-style furniture as something living, young, and still becoming.

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Growing Form: Eight Immortals Table (八仙桌)

Sculpture, Furniture, Crafts

2024

This work approaches the Eight Immortals Table as a form in growth rather than a finished tradition. Through small-scale making and traditional joinery, the table is shaped to appear as a unified body, as if grown from a single piece of wood. It reflects on youth, becoming, and the possibility of new design emerging from Ming-style furniture.

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Ming Hoop

Sculpture, Crafts

2024

This work emerged from my study of Ming-style furniture making. Techniques of panel construction and circular joinery revealed a structural rhythm that resonated with the form of a basketball hoop. Through layered panels and curved joints, the object explores making as both a physical process and a way of thinking shaped by daily work with tools.

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Experiment: Growth & Living

Sculpture, Crafts

2023

This work emerged during my study of traditional Ming-style furniture making. Through joinery, proportion, and the careful arrangement of wood grain, these objects revealed a distinct rhythm, as if each piece had grown from a single block of wood rather than being assembled. The work reflects a sense of furniture as a unified body, shaped through craft and time. It explores whether wood and furniture can be understood not as static objects, but as forms that carry the logic and imagination of growth.

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Yuan 圆

Furniture, Crafts

2023

Yuan 圆 takes inspiration from the Ming-style gǔ tuǐ péng yá (鼓腿彭牙) form, defined by swelling legs and softened transitions. Shaped through continuous curves rather than strict geometry, the stool balances stability with flexibility. It approaches roundness as a quality of moderation and quiet adaptability. In dialogue with Fang 方, Yuan forms part of a paired understanding of the world, where balance emerges through complementarity.

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Fang 方

Furniture, Crafts

2023

Fang 方 is derived from the concept of fangzheng (方正), associated with uprightness and clarity. Constructed through straight lines and planar surfaces, the stool emphasizes structure, proportion, and restraint. Subtle refinements at the joints soften its geometric presence. In dialogue with Yuan 圆, Fang completes a paired understanding of form, where order and fluidity coexist as complementary principles.

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