Material: A World Free of Pretense

Digital technology is reshaping contemporary life at astonishing speed. While bringing great convenience, it also stirs up endless worldly noise. An overwhelming stream of information surges forth unchecked. People indulge in shallow informational content, gradually forgetting their innermost true aspirations. Easily driven along by prevailing trends, they lose the capacity for independent thinking, and gradually break the intimate bond that ought to connect daily life with spiritual inner being.

Nowadays, people grow increasingly alienated from the nature of sincere communion with tangible substances, trapped firmly in the grip of worldly desires. They pursue instant results in all pursuits, lacking the patience to savour the process and calm their minds. Widespread mental exhaustion has become an inescapable predicament of this era. Instead of lingering in illusory spiritual emptiness, we ought to return to reality and draw close to those tangible presences within life — materials.

Materials embody the most sincere and unvarnished existence in the world, never deliberately concealing their inherent attributes. A chunk of concrete retains its rugged texture and natural air pores, fully preserving the most authentic marks formed in its shaping process; a piece of waste porcelain carries mottled cracks and faded glaze tones, quietly narrating its unique past experiences.

In this information age filled with excessive packaging and empty rhetoric, materials always uphold their innate purity and genuineness. No amount of subjective definition or worldly evaluation can alter their inherent hardness, weight, temperature and texture. They abide by their original nature, remaining unperturbed by external distractions. In an era where most follow trends blindly and everything is refined with deliberate craft, such unadorned innate character of materials grows increasingly precious and rare.

The entire evolution of human civilization is essentially a history of material application and innovation. Ever since the birth of the earliest chipped stone tool, the original aspiration of human design and creation has taken root. Materials also serve as core markers dividing civilizational phases; historians have long categorized eras by mainstream applied materials: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The discovery and application of every material stands as the truest epitome of its era.

Materials silently record an era’s resource endowment, craftsmanship standards, aesthetic tendencies and spiritual essence. The massive stone architectures of ancient Egypt embodied the ancients’ yearning for eternal existence; the practical mortar proportions of ancient Rome embodied the pragmatic and steady wisdom of predecessors; steel and glass prevalent in the industrial age bore humanity’s ultimate pursuit of efficient progress in modern civilization. From ancient times to the present, materials have faithfully traced the path of civilizational advancement.

Furthermore, materials act as solid carriers that translate ideological concepts into reality. Rooted in real life, they subtly shape people’s perspective of perceiving the world and all things. Remaking daily utensils from waste porcelain is far more than crafting practical articles; it conveys a design ethos of cherishing objects, respecting creations and pursuing circular coexistence. The spiritual strength borne by materials runs far deeper than their external shapes and forms.

In this era of material abundance, the spiritual connotation behind daily artifacts is far more scarce and valuable than the commodities themselves. Contemporary design ought to step out of utilitarian creative mindsets and explore people’s genuine inner demands. The spiritual core of artifact creation lies hidden within every genuine tangible material within reach.

Distinguished design ought to break away from fixed artistic labels and rigid design stereotypes, discard redundant external embellishments, and face up to the original essence of materials. Cast aside the predefined boundaries between artworks and industrial products. Openly embrace the innate rugged texture of concrete, cherish the unique incomplete charm of recycled waste porcelain, strip off all artificial deliberate modifications, and fully restore materials to their pristine and natural state.

With years of in-depth research and practical exploration into materials, BENTU always adheres to inner exploration to seek out people’s simplest life needs. To turn inward means refusing blind conformity and profit-driven imitation, refusing to follow mainstream market trends, perceiving the innermost spiritual yearnings deep in human hearts, resisting external restlessness and impetuosity with calm resolve, and sticking to our exclusive creative stance.

We uphold minimalist and pure creative expression and eliminate all redundant ornamentation. Such minimalism is never a single fixed design style, but a sober and sensible choice of values. It discards all unnecessary external distractions, enables daily items to cast off vanity, integrate into ordinary life in the most sincere and plain manner, and reflect the unhurried essence of life.

All raw materials, craftsmanship techniques and cultural heritages in the world have no inherent distinction of high or low status. With a pure state of mind, even ordinary earth, sand and stone can be refined to possess unique value comparable to rare treasures. No material is inherently superior or inferior. Every plant, every clod of earth and every stone can awaken inner latent power and display exclusive individuality through thoughtful design. This design philosophy of equality among all things represents the most objective and profound insight into the material world.

At a time when public perception grows increasingly faint and people’s minds turn more impetuous and utilitarian, recognizing the essential traits of substances, breaking worldly preconceptions, rebuilding a brand-new harmonious bond between humans and materials, and constantly exploring diverse creative possibilities of materials are essential paths to attain inner peace and establish spiritual sustenance.

This has long been the consistent direction of BENTU’s persistent material experiments and original design endeavors: to explore how to build sincere, equal, simple and profound spiritual connections with the material world.

Material: A World Free of Pretense

Author: Xu Gang

This article is an original work of the BENTU Material Aesthetics Speculative Series, exploring the spiritual value of materials and design ethics in the digital age.