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ORIENT & REORIENT, 2026
Digital Installation/ Cultural Typography

Designer: Xinyuan(Caesar) Li

Activation for Melbourne Art Book Fair 2026 
Time: 16 - 17 May 2026
Location: NGV Federation Court Photographer: Eugene Hyland, Tobias Titz

Ornament is often seen as decorative and neutral, ignoring the inevitable cultural and social connotations. This digital installation ORIENT & RE-ORIENT deals with chop-suey–like letterforms that historically mimic “Chineseness" but have no authentic connection with Chinese culture or traditions.

Historically informed by tea label designs produced by the India & China Tea Company in nineteenth-century Victoria, this three-channel video work integrates typography and ornamentation to re-orient the viewer to social, cultural and political dynamics and tensions that shaped Chinese-Australian relations in the 19th century. The India & China Tea Company’s original promotional phrases are reinterpreted into a typographic manifesto that asserts that typography is never neutral. This work invites audiences to consider how such ornamental, ethnicised typography purports and contributes to the shaping of Chinese cultural identity, while also questioning the role of ornament and design in everyday visual culture.

Special thanks to the support from the NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair 2026 team, Megan Patty, Sen Peruzzi Vanderzalm and Astari Mudana.