Living Spirits: Bai Craft and the Art of Nature

The Bai people of Dali, located in the Yunnan province of China, honour nature as sacred. This exhibition draws on the Bai people’s traditional 三坊一照壁 (Three Memorial Archways and One Screen Wall) architecture, reflecting their mountain lifestyle and spiritual practices. Through embroidery, indigo textiles, traditional clothing, ceramics, Dali dreamstone, silver and woodwork, it explores how the Bai weave spirituality into nature’s essence.

Just as their dwellings shape daily life, their crafts trace spiritual meaning, forming a dialogue between the tangible and the transcendent. Embroidery embodies meditation and reverence for nature’s cycles, while Bai clothing reflects divinity through patterns of wind, flowers, snow and the moon. Ceramic roof ornaments serve as spiritual guardians, and silver and woodwork symbolise ancestral connections. Indigo textiles and Dali dreamstone capture the fluidity of clouds and water.

This exhibition offers a rare glimpse into how Bai crafts bridge the material and spiritual, tradition and modernity. You are warmly invited to experience this vibrant culture and its enduring legacy.

EVENT DETAILS

Performance

15 May 2025, 18:00 - 19:00

17 May 2025, 17:00 - 18:00

Talk

18 May 2025, 14:00 - 16:00

Exhibition

12 May 2025, 10:00 - 18:00

13 May 2025, 09:00 - 20:00

14 May 2025 - 16 May 2025, 09:00 - 19:00

17 May 2025, 10:00 - 19:00

18 May 2025, 10:00 - 17:00

VENUE INFORMATION

Cromwell Place

4 Cromwell PlaceSW7 2JE