Staged inside the domestic rooms of VILLA tbh in Shanghai, ‘it’s raining outside, it’s raining inside’ is a solo exhibition by designer and artist Duyi Han, developed following a multi-week residency inside the house itself — the installation was built in and for the specific rooms it now occupies, rather than assembled off-site and shipped in.
At its core, a custom carpet printed with concentric rain-ripple motifs grounds a cluster of pleated, translucent organza sculptures. The intervention spreads room by room: a sheer, tailored garment suspended inside a timber vitrine, embroidered sneakers arranged as static sculptural objects, resin water droplets hung over the kitchen sink, backlit textiles softening the bathroom’s surfaces. Graphic fragments of song lyrics and film dialogue are embroidered directly into the fabric — a typographic layer linking sound, light and interior form across the whole residence, per Designboom’s exclusive coverage of the piece.
The project calls itself a “Listening Garden”: a space where materiality — carpet texture, fabric translucency, embroidered text — does the work that a more literal soundtrack might do elsewhere, turning rainfall, cinema and pop music references into something you read with your hands and eyes rather than hear. Designboom didn’t report a closing date for the show; readers in Shanghai should confirm current status with the venue before visiting.