Nanjing

After leaving Zibo we travelled for 6 hours by train to Nanjing where we had been invited by the Nanjing Arts Institute to exhibit our studio and factory work and give demonstrations and talks to students about our work. Zanze is head of the Ceramics Department and wrote the following introduction to the exhibition.

"The phrase "Liu Shang" in Chinese means floating cups, and it originates from the ancient Chinese custom called "Qu Shui Liu Shang". Every year on March 3 according to the Chinese lunar calender, people would sit along the river sides, watching cups floating down the river. The participants would pick the cups from the river and drink the water inside it whenever the cups pass by, and they believed that by doing so, it would help them avoiding diseases and bring them good fortune.

In Eastern Jin Dynasty on March 3 (AC353), the most famous Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi and other 41 scholars had a meeting at Lan Ting in the Yim Mountain, and he wrote down the well-known poem "Lan Ting Preface". From then on, "Qu Shui Liu Shang" became very popular among scholars. People who had the same interests and habits would gather near mountains, bamboo forests and rivers, to drink, read, discuss and write poems to express themselves. Indeed a congenial way to be with friends.

Today a group of ceramists have come together in Shandong province, bringing with them their studio works to Huaguang Bone China in Zibo. They have worked to transfer their personal studio ware qualities to industrial design. After two weeks working in Zibo, they have now come to Nanjing Art Institute to show both their studio work and the factory products as well as demonstrating their making methods.

Even without bamboo forests and floating rivers, with travelling between countries and cities as well as the communication between artists, they have formed a floating river of sorts, a floating river with many varied and beautiful cups.

Through this exhibition, these ceramists walking between "studio" and "factory" bring to us not only studio works but also a floating, active and new spirit of art to industrial ceramic design. Hopefully these floating cups will run over."

Jiang Yanze
14-09-2009