One Plus Partnership Limited, Ajax Law & Virginia Lung, Installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

The history of human civilization development has always been documented in the form of written words. The designers came up with the idea of building an art piece in the form of two Chinese characters. Out of the 50,000 characters that have ever existed in Chinese history, the designers picked two of them that mean, respectively, "collect" (收; pronounced as "sau1") and "skin" (皮; pronounced as "pei4"). However when put together they would produce a combined meaning of "knock it off!", walking a fine line between slang and vulgar depending accordingly on the context.
Based in Hong Kong, the designers used Cantonese (a dialect spoken in the Canton region of China) to bring out the uniqueness of their local culture. Although these two words are also Chinese characters, Chinese people coming from other regions who speak Mandarin or different dialects would not be able to master the meaning of them. They would only resonate with people who speak Cantonese and share the same cultural background. Even a dictionary could not provide an accurate definition for the phrase.
Metal wire frames are being bent into arch shapes. From afar, they look like regular western arch designs; when one takes a closer look, one could see the arches are not in usual cylindrical form, but in various shapes of Chinese characters. At the end of the arches, the characters would appear very obvious.
The color magenta, a combination of red and violet, generates a warning for people to rethink their behavior, to ‘knock it off’ or ‘cut it out’. The color, on the other hand, is an instrument of harmony and balance, which acts as a warm signal, advising people to self-reflect on themselves. It promotes compassion, kindness, and cooperation and encourages a sense of self-respect and contentment.
With the rise of globalization and Internet abundance, the world seems to have loosened up with the concept of boundaries. The arches symbolize East meeting West, a new world with endless possibilities. With the aggregation of Chinese, Cantonese, and English, the sculpture authentically depicts the fluidity of the languages, which is beyond doubt the gist of Hong Kong’s culture.
Introduction of One Plus Partnership Ltd
Ajax Law and Virginia Lung established the Hong Kong-Based, Award-Winning Interior Design Firm One Plus Partnership Limited in 2004. Their cutting edge designs and daring visions keep amusing the global interior design industry. Over the years, One Plus has been totally awarded 369 International Awards from USA, Germany, Italy, England, Japan and Taiwan until now, including 17 (Interior Design) Best of Year Awards. In the year 2012, One Plus was being honored as the sole winner for Andrew Martin International Interior Designer of the Year Award. Being reputed as ‘The Oscars of the Interior Design World’, One Plus is the First Asian Interior Design firm to have been awarded this accolade.