umum+ is a London and Hangzhou-based studio founded by curator Dan Huang and architect Shutong Fan in 2025 at their home in Kensal Green, London. We work across curation, spatial design, publication, object design, and situated research under one theme: Craft.
Craft is understood not as the preservation of tradition, but as a mindset for approaching the world. We attempt to reintroduce, recontextualise, regenerate, and readapt craft for a contemporary life context, bringing it to a wider audience who might not have been interested in craft before.
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We collaborate with a cross-disciplinary group of creatives: makers, artists, writers, graphic designers, architects, archaeologists, and filmmakers. Together, we translate overlooked materials, objects, and designs into curated encounters framed by displacement and recontextualisation. We approach design as a connective framework. Each project develops from attentive research into its cultural context, constructing a ground where stories surface and unfold through sustained dialogue.
umum+ grew from umum objects. The original idea was to adapt a private living space into a communal space for contemporary craft. Now, the practice has grown into an object gallery, umum objects, and a studio, umum+. The studio has been invited to host exhibitions and events in London, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hunan.
Our collaborators include: Saltriver Studio, Arisu Ange, Slowdance, Gegend Gallery, Common Divisor, Zephyrus Art, and Storyage.
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umum+ grew from umum objects. The original idea was to adapt a private living space into a communal space for contemporary craft. Now, the practice has grown into an object gallery, umum objects, and a studio, umum+. The studio has been invited to host exhibitions and events in London, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hunan.
Our collaborators include: Saltriver Studio, Arisu Ange, Slowdance, Gegend Gallery, Common Divisor, Zephyrus Art, and Storyage.
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Project
- Ready-to-Pot
- Used to Use #2: British Household Curios
- Used to Use #1: British Silverware Curios
- Crafted Escapes
- The Art of Repetition
- umum x common divisior
- Reading Room #2
- Reading Room #1
- Zhàngwù: Youyou Wang
Library
Chen Bao: A Conversation with Clay and the Past
Contact
77 Fulham Palace, London, England, W6 8AF
Coming Soon
We welcome portfolios from graphic designers, architects, product designers, sound artists, construction consultants, stage designers, filmmakers, and craft researchers. Please share your work with us at hr@umumobjects.com
info@umumobjects.com
Type: Exhibition
Client: Zephyrus Art
Location: Chenzhou, Hunan, China
The exhibition 7-day Wonder stems from a craft tour across Hunan organised earlier this year by the London-based curatorial group umum+, a journey driven by curiosity about regional craft and the dialogues that may emerge through displacement and recontextualisation.
This time, the curatorial studio acted as a ‘travel agency’, placing artists Marian Bijlenga, Isobel Napier, and James Trundle outside their familiar studio environments and into something less predictable: villages where ramie has been grown and woven for generations, carpenter workshops that can construct an entire house in two weeks, and bamboo cutting that feels almost like a quiet daily performance. In these settings, the artists encountered a different tempo of making. Living alongside the makers, they collected objects, observed daily rituals, and absorbed the kind of life wisdom that rarely appears in any travel guide.
This time, the curatorial studio acted as a ‘travel agency’, placing artists Marian Bijlenga, Isobel Napier, and James Trundle outside their familiar studio environments and into something less predictable: villages where ramie has been grown and woven for generations, carpenter workshops that can construct an entire house in two weeks, and bamboo cutting that feels almost like a quiet daily performance. In these settings, the artists encountered a different tempo of making. Living alongside the makers, they collected objects, observed daily rituals, and absorbed the kind of life wisdom that rarely appears in any travel guide.
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7-day Wonder unfolds as a travel journal in two chapters. The first brings viewers into Dutch visual artist Marian Bijlenga’s way of seeing, her spatial drawings made from objects and materials gathered along the way, suspending the quiet surprises in mid-air. Fishing net yarn, fish scales, spent firework tubes and wasted sandpapers:things that were on their way to disappearing, now held in space.
7-day Wonder is umum+'s first exploration of a methodology that uses the concept of ‘travelling’ to generate new perspectives and inspire artistic creation. Conceived during a tour, the exhibition is hosted within a hotel and designed to engage a tourist audience. The programme is supported by Zephyrus Art as part of their commitment to the local Hunan community.
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7-day Wonder is umum+'s first exploration of a methodology that uses the concept of ‘travelling’ to generate new perspectives and inspire artistic creation. Conceived during a tour, the exhibition is hosted within a hotel and designed to engage a tourist audience. The programme is supported by Zephyrus Art as part of their commitment to the local Hunan community.
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The exhibition design expands on the idea of 'wandering' and intends to adapt materials we found during the trip. Ramie fabric made by Xiabu Master Tan Zhixiang is readapted as an entrance, facilitating a transcendent experience. The main gallery hosts 5 pieces of Marian Bijlenga's work from 2007 to the present, including flow she made for the show. Marian's collected patterns are scattered across the curved table, which gives a relational visual experience of seeing the image and the artwork at the same time.
The curved table is designed to create a route for wandering around the space. It is also a modular design that can be easily disassembled and reused for future scenarios. For storage, it becomes a compact unit that accommodates the hotel's limited storage space.
The mind room is inspired by the 'mind wall' in Marian Bijlenga's studio in Amsterdam, which consists of her inspirations, material samples, and found objects. As it was imagined to capture the essence of her studio, it also captures the sound of walking on a bamboo floor in a nearby farmhouse.
The idea of a travel agency is expanded into the graphic presentation. The exhibition ticket is integrated into the design of the hotel room card.
Team
Curators: Huang Dan & Fan Shutong
Producer: Yang Yueqing
Exhibition Advisor: Dr. Penny Dan Xu
Exhibition Designer: Fan Shutong
Visual Designer: Mao Di
Photography: Peng jing, Fan Shutong, Huang Dan, and Isobel Napier
Planing & Script: umum+
Producer: Dan Huang
Direction of Photography: Hugo
Videographer: Tang Lingzhi, Fan Shutong
Post-production editor: Chen Yuan