d+a | Issue 116 • Jun/July 2020

/ LIFE / 90 OLIVIA LEE’S NARRATIVE-LED WORKS STAND OUT IN THE CROWDED DESIGN SCENE FOR THEIR CHARM AND DEPTH OF MEANING. TELLING TALES WORDS LUO JING MEI / PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF OLIVIA LEE I n November 2019, Olivia Lee transformed the top two storeys of Hermès’ Singapore flagship store into an otherworldly landscape. She blanketed the penultimate floor in undulating terracotta clay, forming towers, valleys and ridges. She timed a miniature metallic-copper train to loop in and out of tunnels. She poised little vermillion diggers in mid- motion of unearthing buttons and buckles. Welcome to Planet H. The enchanting tableaus hint at extra- terrestrial life gathering material scraps, which Hermès’ offshoot design atelier petit h turns into the exquisite objects – furniture, bags, stationery – colouring the setting. Lee was inspired by the astronauts’ similar resourcefulness in the film Apollo 13 (they assembled a carbon dioxide-recycling machine with spacecraft parts).