The year 2004 marked a special moment in China's long history of
porcelain production. Up until then, the kiln fire ovens of
Jingdezhen, the country's prestigious ceramic capital in Jiangxi
Province, had been burning for more than 1000 years without
interruption. The craft of making Chinese porcelain, regarded the
best in the world, was being passed on from generation to
generation. In May 2004, four Chinese arrived at the European
Ceramic Work Centre in the Netherlands, as visiting artists of its
Dutch-Chinese Ceramic Project.
The centre has won worldwide recognition as an advanced workshop
of highest artistic and academic levels in the modern ceramic
circle. The Chinese ceramic artists took a three-month residency
there, living and working with artists from across the world.
Their experience was quite unlike that of their ancestors, who
traded exquisite porcelain plates with the Western world on the
Silk Road and by sea for centuries.
The Netherlands ceramic sojourn has established a profound
cultural and artistic exchange between China, known as the
motherland of porcelain, and the world's contemporary centre of
ceramic arts.
Dozens of works by the four Chinese artists completed during
their stay at the centre are now on display at the Central Academy
of Fine Arts Gallery at Beijing's Wangfujing Street. The debut show
was held at the Municipal Museum in Hertogenbosch, the city where
the workshop is located, in last December.
Sponsored by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in
Beijing, the exhibition is running until October 1.
Audiences will find the ceramic display different from many
others, devoid of conventional vases, bowls and plates with grace
patterns and delicate glaze. The exhibits are rather brave
experiments blending varieties of artistic languages and materials,
such as sculpture, action art and installation.
The artists have crossed the boundary of ceramic arts and now
offer fresh possibilities to this historical art, which were
inspired by continuous challenges from working in an unfamiliar
environment and with people of different cultural backgrounds.
Wan Liya from Qingdao of East China's Shandong Province applied
the traditional way of pottery making. His creations reflect the
relationship between material and spirit pursuits.
One of his works, "Food Comes First," is a joint co-operation
with Adriaan Rees, a Dutch artist and also Wan's supervisor at the
workshop. Sets of Western plates are set on a large table, and in
every plate is a ceramic brain. A video on the wall shows how they
cooked, surrounded the brains with boiled vegetables and soup, and
ate with other artists in the centre's kitchen.
Wu Shixiong, chairman of Shenzhen Art Seminar in Guangdong
Province, was inspired by the Dutch style of openness and created
the "Human Nature" figurative series in the sculptural language.
His productions explore the multiple faces of the human body and
mind, beautiful or fragile.
Xia Dewu, a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, hurt
his hands on his visit. Because it was inconvenient to produce
complicated shapes, he joined small pottery pieces to complete the
works, an action which turned into a unique artistic
experiment.
Wang Haichen from Shanghai is the only woman artist among the
four. She is experienced in the blue and white porcelain, or the
famous qinghua. However, influenced by the exotic atmosphere, she
boldly tried various new techniques and materials, such as colored
glazes and mixed colored clays, to create large shapes.
Also being presented are individual works by Adriaan Rees. A
visual artist, Rees travels frequently in China and has built an
extensive network connecting artists from both countries. He helped
select the four artists out of all the candidates after the centre
implemented the China project.
"They are talented," he said. "Not because these artists have
received a traditional and professional education. They also embody
an open mind to the development of ceramic arts in the world. They
have travelled a lot abroad, which enables them to create works
representing both their national identity and contacts with the
world."
His collaboration productions with the four Chinese artists
deserve special attention. With an idea derived from the "Far away
Country," which was put forward by Koos de Jong, director of the
workshop, each of the artists chose a subject and made a basic
shape. The other four then took turns to finish the works.
Norman Trapman, board member of the workshop, also brings his
creations based upon his numerous trips to China's ceramic centers
since 1989, including Jingdezhen, Dehua of Fujian Province and
Chaozhou of Guangdong.
The workshop offers a stage where participants and staff study
the artistic and technical features of ceramics, and carry out
experiments. Every year, 44 ceramists, fine artists, designers and
architects join the workshop and are selected through a global
public competition.
(China Daily September 21, 2006)
