Jiaqi Xie
Ceramics
“Why clay?” This is the question I often ask myself.
Clay, in my understanding, is an incarnation of mother earth, the avatar of Gaia. Working with clay gives me an opportunity to have a conversation with the primal goddess of the earth, to engage myself with a natural material physically with every single touch.
Working with clay also allows me to trace back and connect to my roots.
As the descendants of one of the peoples who have a long history of making and using pottery, I have not only grown a sense of belonging and identity to my Chinese ancestors in working with clay, but also tied the bond between my motherland and myself. Being surrounded and inspired by western culture, I am also looking for a way to navigate history with contemporary life and find a balance between Eastern and Western culture.
Through every single touch, I engaged myself in a conversation with the primal goddess of the earth to discuss the problematic relationship between nature and the human world. I am experimenting with a way to create works that function as clay theatre, which depicts cautionary allegories about the Anthropocene debate. Within my allegories, I am expressing my concerns and hope to arouse some introspection.
Hide and Seek
This work functions as a clay theatre which depicts an allegory of the relationship between human and nature. The transition of a rope into a snake, a natural predator to the animals hiding in the woods, is a metaphor for the crisis moment we are currently facing in the Anthropocene epoch. Inside the clay theatre, the narratives are glaring with vitality and childlike delight but implying threatening omen and acerbity at the same time.
Once Upon A Time
History, Culture, Mythology.
Reborn in Fire (浴火）
When ceramics meet glass: dripping hot glass into a fired ceramic pot.
Spider
Hand-blown glass.
Taiko Band in Onishi
The Definition of Anxiety
The state of anxiety is made visible through the arrangement of ceramic and glass objects in the set-up ordinary home environment.
Untitled
This memorial relief depicts the last moment before the extinction of dinosaurs from the earth. It implies that humans may face the same destiny as dinosaurs if we cannot stop our harm to the earth.
