Duyi Han Turns a Shanghai Villa Into a Textile Listening Garden

A carpet printed with concentric rain ripples anchors Duyi Han's new solo exhibition inside a Shanghai residence. Titled 'it's raining outside, it's raining inside,' the show opened at VILLA tbh on October 24th and runs through November 22nd, 2026.

Han, a designer and artist, developed the installation during a multi-week residency in the home. The result is what he calls a 'Listening Garden': a site-specific composition of textile sculptures, hand embroidery, objects, and acoustic elements spread through the villa's domestic rooms. The project draws its visual and atmospheric references from rainfall, cinema, fashion, and pop music, and it investigates how soft furnishings and narrative materiality can shift spatial perception inside a historic house.

What fills the 'Listening Garden'?

At the center of the main room, the custom carpet's circular ripple motifs ground a cluster of pleated, translucent organza sculptures. The interventions around it are keyed to each space.

• A sheer, tailored garment hangs inside a timber vitrine, titled after Guitarricadelafuente lyrics: 'Ese Viento Fatal Me Ha Transformado en Otro Chaval' ('That Fatal Wind Has Turned Me into Another Kid').
• A pair of sneakers and socks made in organza sits as static sculpture, embroidered with Blood Orange lyrics 'nothing is forgiven.'
• 3D printed resin water droplets rest in the kitchen sink, paired with Tame Impala lyrics 'how was I to know.'
• A bathroom installation is titled after Billie Eilish lyrics 'I'll run a shower for you like you want,' with translucent, softly backlit textiles lining the surfaces.
• One sculpture carries Ariana Grande's line 'practically drowning in my blessings.'

The typographic thread runs through everything. Graphic fragments of song lyrics and film dialogues are embroidered directly across the woven fabrics, embedding narrative into the decorative textiles and linking sound, light, and interior form throughout the residence.

What does this change for the visitor?

The exhibition treats the home itself as the medium. Rather than placing objects in a neutral gallery, Han pairs domestic furniture with soft sculptural forms to blur functional boundaries — a kitchen sink becomes a plinth, a bathroom becomes a lightbox. Visitors move through the villa's real rooms, where rainfall motifs and borrowed lyrics turn soft furnishings into carriers of narrative.

For Han, the residency format appears central to the work's logic: the pieces respond to where they sit, from the carpet underfoot to the droplets over the drain. The show remains on view at VILLA tbh in Shanghai until November 22nd, 2026, with all images credited to the artist.

Han presented the project through designboom's DIY submissions feature, which publishes reader-submitted work — a channel that continues to bring independent, site-specific installations like this one to a wider audience.

Project information

• Name: it's raining outside, it's raining inside
• Artist: Duyi Han (@duyi.han)
• Location: VILLA tbh, Shanghai, China
• Dates: October 24th – November 22nd, 2026