Fractures
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Ceramics | Hybrid Ceramics
Media: Ceramics, Ropes, Wires
Size: 2 Pieces, 550 mm W × 550 mm D × 50 mm H
Date: October 2023
Abstract
Fractures is a hybrid diptych critiquing the value of failures and “imperfections.” Ceramic vases I once thought ruined – sagging, cracked, or broken – became new works, each with its own uniqueness and personality. What first felt like a catastrophe revealed how flaws can create meanings and characters that flawlessness can never offer.
Story
In Jingdezhen, China’s “Capital of Porcelain,” I stood among rows of pristine ceramic vessels meticulously crafted by skilled masters. My own pieces, full of cracks and air pockets, felt like failures. In frustration, I hurled them at a wall, each becoming a completely different shape, taking on its own character. Fired in the same kilns as the masters’ vases, they returned not as shame but as art – each with its own personality. Back in Beijing, I bound them with crimson ropes and wires, seeing in them my own struggle against perfection and my pursuit of true freedom in art.
Process
After creating a series of decent vases, I felt that they lacked characters. Smashing them against the wall, firing them, and then reconstructing them with ropes and wires turned the pottery into hybrid sculptures, each serving as a reminder that identity and uniqueness come not from perfection but in the cracks and crevices that are personal.