A poetic and cross-cultural work that conveys sweetness through photography, illustration, texts and poems.
“Sweetness” is a set of hand-bound books, a collaborated project designed as part of an official gift for our school’s guests. My teammates are from three different countries.
The whole version of the gift is composed within a theme of the 12 representative fruits for the 12 months of the year, according to the Chinese solar season tradition. “Sweetness” is part of the whole version. It is about four kinds of fruits, which appear to be sweeter during the four months of winter.
This cross-cultural project is in collaboration with my teammates from three different countries. By scanning the QR codes you are able to listen to the recorded audio of the poems composed in three languages (Chinese, Korean, Russian ).
In this series, three poems in three languages (Chinese, Korean, Russian) are created based on different cultural backgrounds, which are in harmony with each other. By scanning the QR codes at the end of each book, you are able to listen to the recorded audio of the poems, in which three people speaking three languages at the same time about “sweetness”.
We have tried different approaches to relate the four months and their fruits. Our approaches included photography, an illustrated book and poetry. The original content of the books is compiled into four books. “Sweetnees” gracefully presents the differences in the understanding of different cultural backgrounds. By bringing texts and images into the form of a set of books, it unites the differences in harmony and beauty.
Design: Bella Hu, Becca Hu, Chen Yanhong, Mu Yana, Tan Hui, Xu En
Printed and handmade in Beijing, 2017
Copyright © Bella Hu, Becca Hu. All rights reserved.
isabellahubao@hotmail.com, beccahu@live.cn
