2025
Unique Work
Materials: wool, velvet, clay, wood

anaschao.com 

Netherlands-based, Taiwanese designer Anas Chao’s Homes Away From Home installation is inspired by our universal search for belonging and the connections found in breaking bread. The designer was born and raised in Saudi Arabia to a Taiwanese family, and traveled back and forth between the two locales throughout his upbringing, before moving to the Netherlands to pursue his master’s degree. This continuous relocation made his own sense of identity and belonging ambiguous. His work reflects on these experiences in an attempt to both understand his place in the world and further connect with those around him. 

Homes Away from Home comprises a tabletop fabric bearing delicate, needle-felted patterns and ceramic, handpainted plates marked by stories of the restaurants and meals in Chao’s adopted homes that have offered him a sense of kinship through different stages of his life. In this way, the work materializes these important, yet ephemeral moments. The installation, which took Chao over 500 hours to produce by hand, includes blank plates at one end that allude to the designer’s faith that moments of connection and a sense of home will continue to present themselves wherever he goes, if only he remains open to them. This work, which debuted in spring 2025 at BASE Milano’s Making Kin exhibition, has been specially recreated for Crafting Community to include both German and English texts.