Ge Bei

Biography

Ge Ba

The "Ge Bei", these "fabric paintings", originate from China in the traditional recycling of the importables clothes. Extreme refinement of the art of recovery, each "Ge Bei" is a composition made with rice glue and fabrics coming from  excessively worn jacket collars, still solid pockets, pieces of mandarin dresss ...

These pieces could be reused in the garment, but discreetly: linings, reinforcements, insoles.
On these "slabs" of fabric we find the colors of Chinese life: indigo, brown and black of regular people, flowering seeds strictly reserved for children, hemp printed block, silk "shark skin" and fragments of calligraphy escaped from the Cultural Revolution.

This exceptional collection of 90 "Ge Bei" was assembled in the 50s and 60s by a single collector.