The SETCAST collection by Voon Wong and Benson Saw was recently featured at the Visual Arts exhibition for Singapore Encore in Brussels on Wednesday, 25th November 2009 at the Musical Instruments Museum. This event was organised in partnership with the Singapore International Foundation and the Singapore Embassy in Belgium. In attendances were about 150 dignitaries from the diplomatic, business and cultural sectors of Belgian society.The SETCAST collection is the result of a close collaboration between voonwong & bensonsaw and one of China's most distinguished manufacturers of bone china, Asianera, based in Tangshan, the porcelain capital of northern China.
Bone china is too often associated with decorative patterns on traditional shapes. With the arrival of SETCAST, a contemporary series of everyday items with exquisite, new architectural forms, the material has been given a new lease of life by stretching the possibilities of bone china manufacturing and design.
The collection is the result of a close collaboration between London-based architectural practice VoonWong&BensonSaw and one of China’s most distinguished manufacturers of bone china, Asianera, based in Tangshan, the porcelain capital of northern China. Together, the companies have developed a collection that makes the best use of bone china’s excellent light-reflective properties and also moves away from traditional decorative tableware to focus on striking new typologies that make a bold statement.
The cooperation began in 2004 when Voon Wong and Benson Saw met the owners of Asianera, while working on the hip nightclub Fabrique in Shanghai. They were at the time searching for a new material for one of their existing product designs, the Fragment tea light, then made in Carrara marble. Asianera’s artisanal approach and VoonWong&BensonSaw’s modern take on the traditional material seemed a perfect combination.The material of bone china, over its two hundred year history, has lent itself to formal and traditional dining. Its strength, translucency and high whiteness have meant that bone china is associated with exclusivity and exquisite surface patterns and is a material rarely tackled by contemporary product designers. Fine bone china makers continue this tradition today and produce beautiful and expensive dinner services that are purchased for occasional use.
