A Circus Life
A Circus Life, the first solo exhibition by London-based sculptural ceramics studio PPP LAB, staged as an immersive spatial experience in the heart of Shanghai’s French Concession, China. Part retail showroom, part performance, the space was conceived as an abstracted circus world – daydreamy, ephemeral, and playfully refined.
Responding to PPP LAB’s signature ‘Circus Cup’ collection of handmade porcelain goblets, the exhibition drew on tent-like geometries and theatrical rhythms, reinterpreted through a pared-back, material-forward lens. The result was a space where visitors became participants in an ever-shifting dynamic scene.
At the centre of the exhibition was a family of quarter-circular stainless steel plinths, designed to shift weekly over the duration of the show. Combined, they formed circles, waves and arcs, framing the porcelain pieces with a sense of both precision and softness. Their ultra-thin profiles gave the illusion of floating, amplifying the tension between stillness and performance, industrial control and handcrafted expression.
A sequence of full-length sheer curtains introduced movement and layered perception. Flowing gently with the wind, they softened transitions between rooms and created shifting thresholds – sometimes glimpsing silhouettes behind fabric, sometimes parting the veils themselves. Engaging with the installation meant moving the curtains to pass from one scene to the next, a subtle act of role-play and daydreaming that reinforced the sense of stepping into another world
Hilma af Klint, No. 1, Starting Picture, Series II, 1920
