Interbeing – Emptiness is Form

I met Ling Chun when we were both shortlisted for the Young Masters Ceramics Prize. I was fascinated by her pop-bright coloured sculptures based on vessel forms sprouting human hair. Ling Chun contributed to the virtual vernissage which took place immediately before the physical one, zooming in from Seattle where she is based and expounding on the territory her work occupies in the space between craft and art. Jenny Chan also talked about her work at the online opening, from her base in Sheffield, and gave a very honest, heartening account of her experience as a mother and an immigrant and how clay became her pathway through a challenging time in her life.

Both Chun and Chan hail from Hong Kong, where a significant number of artists in the show come from. Ka Ho Ng is based in Hong Kong. His pierced forms are influenced by Laozi’s Daodejing, who attests that the main essence of ceramic art is creating space. Ryan Hui Chun Kit’s philosophy is routed in a strong belief that the goodness in life can be appreciated through the making and usage of functional pottery, a belief introduced by Yanagi Sōetsu in his seminal book The Beauty of Everyday Things, who suggests that commonplace objects “should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be natural and simple, sturdy and safe – the aesthetic result of wholeheartedly fulfilling utilitarian needs. They should, in short, be things of beauty.”

A number of artists were recommended by Guanghui Chen, head of ceramics at Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. Kang Qing co-leads the course and was the most established artist in the show. Her exquisite tiles are truly things of beauty – layering clays, glaze, print and lustre, it is accomplished and astonishing work.

Jia Kun lives in Italy and we met whilst we were both in residence at Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark. Her quiet, contemplative works encapsulate tiny worlds within the glaze, which she manipulates the way a painter blends watercolours.

Bringing this group of artists together for our tenth exhibition kick-started the Interbeing project at a time when, at least in the UK, audiences, emerging from a winter in lockdown and having survived a year of the pandemic, were eager to experience art in person. Emptiness is Form, arranged throughout the various spaces of The Ceramic House and garden offered a welcome opportunity for live interaction.