Details
Free, no booking required
NGV Federation Court
180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Dates
Sat 16 May 10.45 – 11.15am
Ornament is often seen as decorative and neutral, despite its cultural and social meanings. In ORIENT & RE-ORIENT, Xinyuan (Caesar) Li examines ‘chop suey’-style letterforms that mimic “Chineseness” without authentic connection to Chinese culture or traditions.
This conversation unpacks Li’s work for the 2026 Melbourne Art Book Fair, a three-channel video work, which draws on nineteenth-century tea label designs produced by the India & China Tea Company in colonial Victoria. Reworking original promotional phrases into a contemporary typographic manifesto, Li asserts that typography is never neutral.
Together with moderator Vincent Chan, Li will reflect on how ornamental and ethnicised design continues to shape perceptions of identity, and what it means to critically engage with these visual histories today.
Participants
Vincent Chan
Vincent Chan is the director of typographic practice Matter of Sorts, based in Naarm. The practice revolves around notions of commoning, design, pedagogy and type and where they might overlap, co-mingle and meld. Vincent completed his doctorate in 2021 at Monash Art Design & Architecture where his research explored alternative models of typographic practice. He has been a contributing winner and finalist in numerous Australia Graphic Design Association and Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design awards and in 2019 was granted an Ascender award from the Type Directors Club—one of ten international winners recognised for ‘expanding the medium of typography’. Vincent was previously a sessional lecturer at RMIT University and course coordinator of Typography 1 and Type Design at Monash Art, Design and Architecture where he taught for over a decade. He has presented at numerous international conferences and symposiums including the Association Typographique Internationale and the Melbourne Art Book Fair. Alongside Dominic Hofstede and Robert Janes, he also co-directs the typographic (ad)venture Counter Forms. Counter Forms exists as a platform to champion emerging, discursive, antipodean type designers. Driven by typographic research, education and advocacy, we publish original typefaces and texts towards a more accessible, diverse and equitable future.
Xinyuan (Caesar) Li
Xinyuan (Caesar) Li is a designer, researcher and artist born in China and based in Melbourne/Naarm. He is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University. His practice examines typography as a critical and cultural form shaped by identity, culture and history, generating new narratives and cross-cultural perspectives. His work has been exhibited at Melbourne Design Week (2024–2025).