Ornament is often seen as decorative and neutral, despite its cultural and social meanings.
In ORIENT & RE-ORIENT, Xinyuan (Caesar) Li examines ‘chop suey’-style letterforms that mimic “Chineseness” without authentic connection to Chinese culture or traditions.
Informed by tea label designs produced by the India & China Tea Company in nineteenth-century Victoria, this three-channel video work integrates typography and ornament to explore the social, cultural and political dynamics that shaped Chinese-Australian relations.
The India & China Tea Company’s original promotional phrases are reinterpreted into a typographic manifesto, asserting that typography is never neutral. The work invites audiences to consider how ornamental, ethnicised typography contributes to the shaping of Chinese cultural identity, while questioning the role of ornament and design in everyday visual culture.
Xinyuan (Caesar) Li is a designer, researcher and artist born in China and based in Melbourne/Naarm. He is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University. His practice examines typography as a critical and cultural form shaped by identity, culture and history, generating new narratives and cross-cultural perspectives. His work has been exhibited at Melbourne Design Week (2024–2025).