Siying Zhou

The stubby holder, a product invented in 1980s Australia for the purpose of keeping beer bottles and cans cold[1], were purchased from souvenir shops and transformed into the cover for porcelain teapots and bowls. These pots and bowls are resourced from local OP shops and are popularly used crockery by people from the East Asian region. 

In this work, the intercultural negotiation–the in-between cultural place takes place in the emendation of the stubby holder. Through cutting and stitching, the patterns of Australian iconic symbols on the stubby holder’s surface are destroyed and fractured. The disjointed images on the surface of the new artefacts literally disrupt the articulation of the Australian culture. The interior void space of the stubby holder that once was expected to be filled with the beer bottles, now, is loaded with crockery. The design of the crockery hints a different cultural practice from the one that the stubby holder implies. The Chinese characters and dragon patterns on the surface of the crockery recalls the oriental style. The materiality of the crockery indicates that the new cover is to keep the heat, instead of the cold. The cultural difference is visualised from the contrast between the surface of the stubby holder and the crockery. The repurposed stubby holders describe the shape of the crockery. However, the fragmented Australian iconic graphics on the new cover does not only disrupt the cultural references that the Chinese products previously represent, but also contradicts the previous function of the stubby holders. The new covers become a hybrid sign that constitutes the interpellative process of two different cultures. They no longer signify only one Australian identity and value. They rather become a cultural component that contributes to the understanding of the Asian culture. This new form provides each culture extra content from an external perspective. In other words, the new artefact, as the result of multicultural engagement, is the material form of the in-between and a dynamic presentation of cultural difference.

1.  “What is a stubby holder?,” Coolaz , last accessed October 16, 2017, http://www.coolaz.com.au/stubbyholder-history/