Phong Chi Lai (Studio PCL) is a Naarm/Melbourne-based designer/maker specialising in quilts and soft sculptures through improv patchwork.

Phong’s work expresses something of the old world reflected through the eyes and hands of a creative concerned with social and ethical realities of the Twenty-first Century. While he looks back to tradition, with special reverence for the textile arts and techniques of tribal, folk and ethnic cultures, his aesthetic is also informed by contemporary art and fashion.

Using natural dyes and reclaimed fibres foraged from his immediate environment, Phong prioritises social and environmental care in his practice. Taking a considered and intuitive approach, he applies traditional techniques such as hand-quilting, assemblage, bricolage and stitched patchwork to build compositional complexity based on strong organic forms, colour and tonality, and detailed expression in the hand-made lines.