Helen Deng

    deng.hneng@gmail.com

    CAN you imagine a lamp that is also a kaleidoscope? A temp that is also a theater? A piece of furniture with legs made of branches that could have been thrown away at a timber yard? Or tiny, delicate Middle-East-style vases entirely made by hand? Or futuristic clothes made by a designer who has worked for Lady Gaga?

    If you come to OCT Art & Design Gallery to see Basic Instincts, a Dutch contemporary art exhibition being held there, you will no longer have to imagine.

    The exhibition, which takes its name from the Hollywood thriller by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, is a strong, visual blueprint of the Netherlands’ creative culture.

    Designers strive to jump out of the mainstream design style with an open mind, searching for a personal, expressive and spiritual creative path.

    More than 60 works, including fashion items, industrial products, fine art, photography and architecture, are fitted into six landscapes: Perspective, Un-designed, Soft Future, Metropolitan Sleek, Slow Forward and Panopticon. Each landscape communicates an attitude and illuminates a major aspect of Dutch creative culture.

    At the core of each landscape is the work of a fashion designer. Around it, diverse artistic resonances from product design, architecture and photography nurture the landscape’s theme.

    Together the landscapes embody the rich, multifaceted reality of contemporary Dutchness, where complexity and diversity are harmonized by the same modern edgy sensibility.

    “I think Dutch designers have a very open concept of their work,” said Luca Marchetti, curator of the exhibition “Basic Instincts.” “They are aware that they also express a whole vision of things, a state of mind, through their products. That’s what we mean by Dutch creativity.”

    Participants represent the best talent from Dutch art academies and ateliers, and possess a solid and deep creative mentality.

    Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, collaborated with Jose Klap and Sandor Lubbe from the international style title Zoo magazine to develop the exhibition.

    OCT Art & Design Gallery is the third stop of the exhibition tour, after Germany and the Netherlands.

    Time: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., through Nov. 22 (closed Monday)

    Venue: OCT Art & Design Gallery

    Metro: OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C

    Buses: 21, 26, 32, 54, 59, 101, 109, 113, 121, 123, 204, 209, 210, 222, 223, 232, 234, 245, 319, 327, 328, 338, 367, 369 (He Xiangning Art Museum stop)