The winner of the third Zabludowicz Collection Future Map Prize has been chosen. Wei Wang was selected for the design of a range of luxury ceramic evening bags. The prize was awarded at 7:30 pm tonight by Anita Zabludowicz at the opening reception
for Future Map 11, hosted at the Zabludowicz Collection London. The Zabludowicz Collection Future Map Prize was founded in 2009 to support one graduating student from University of the Arts London’s annual Future Map exhibition.
Wei Wang faced tough competition from the other dynamic exhibitors in Future Map 11, London’s pre-eminent annual exhibition of graduating artists and designers from University of the Arts London selected from the 2011 degree shows. This year offers a show packed with design, photography, fashion and fine art.
Wei Wang graduated from the MA in Fashion Artefact, at London College of Fashion in 2011. This course explores the studio practice of leather, metal, plastic and wood to create fashion artefacts that push boundaries.
“In accessory production, there is always a big concern of leveraging a product’s materials onto its functions. I attempt to develop a real breakthrough in the design of my collection based on two aspects: first, thoroughly changing the firm belief and idea of an evening bag’s material, which is supposed to be soft and easy to carry; second, emphasising the cultural function of an evening bag, making efforts to inject new and vibrant historical elements into design. Ceramics are unique, elegant, with a collectable value adding to the mysterious character. They are like movable art works which incorporate a glorious past with the present fashionable outlook.”
Selected from the exhibition by a panel of invited experts, the prize is a £3,000 award and a chance to make a limited edition with the Zabludowicz Collection. The aim of the prize is to enable the winning practitioner to develop new work in the months following their graduation, by both supporting them financially and facilitating a new limited edition by them, fostering a sustainable future for the artist. The selection panel for the Zabludowicz Collection Future Map Prize 2012 was composed of Zabludowicz Collection cofounder Anita Zabludowicz, architect Amanda Levete and artist Chantal Joffe.
Anita Zabludowicz who presented the prize on behalf of the Zabludowicz Collection said
of Wei Wang:
“Wei Wang’s ceramic evening bags are revolutionary; they are not a reworking of a past or existing idea and are technically perfect and beautifully produced.”