"Aesthetics of Ceramics"

  □ Zhang Quan, editor-in-chief / Democracy and Construction Press

  The blood of the compatriots on both sides of the strait is thicker than water, and they have common cultural genes and cultural memories. This natural emotional resonance is inseparable and inseparable.

In the long history of the Chinese nation, whether daily utensils or treasures, all reflect the life style of the era in which they live, and this can also be seen from pottery works.

"Ceramic Art Aesthetics" shows the creation and mental journey of 15 famous ceramic artists in Taiwan, including Jiang Youting, Cai Xiaofang, Du Furen, and their unremitting exploration for the inheritance and innovation of Chinese ceramic art.

  The starting point may be different, but the initial intention and perseverance are surprisingly similar. On the road of pursuing and restoring traditional Chinese culture, these craftsmen who focus on pottery use different materials, formulas and firing methods to endow the pottery with new connotations, and combine individual life with The characteristics of the times are integrated into the pottery, forming a unique pottery style.

  Tianmu tea bowl, probably originated in the Northern Song Dynasty, belongs to pure textured pottery art.

At the moment when the kiln was opened, the glaze droplets on the black tea cup, like the eyes that were opened leisurely in the boundless dark night when Hongmeng first opened, captured Jiang Youting's soul.

He called these black-glazed tea bowls the hidden colors of the eyes. For more than a thousand years, the secrets hidden in the black that no one had discovered were cracked one by one in his kiln.

"I don't do imaginative ideas, I only try to make the simplest things show the most perfect." This is Jiang Youting's creative approach, and his works have realized the positive effect of art that is ultimately quiet and stable.

  In the ceramic art world of Taiwan, China, Du Furen is a very unique existence. He endows the pottery with the humanistic temperament of "seeing Nanshan leisurely", and has a sense of tranquility without delusions.

Du Furen is not interested in skills. He focuses on a natural and open-minded attitude. When he cultivates to a certain level, he will be spontaneous and natural.

In his view, a plate, a flower arrangement is a flower vessel, a food vessel is a food vessel, and a decoration is an ornament.

"My pottery art is an expression of my attitude towards life. It is related to art and nature. I rarely talk about what kind of soil and what kind of kiln it is. Pottery can be used to drink tea and arrange flowers, but during the exhibition, there is a feeling of life. It’s just an appearance.” When interpreting his ceramic works, Du Furen showed a more detached interpretation and understanding.

  Unlike most ceramists who focus on one kind of ceramics, Cai Xiaofang tries to restore the whole context of the development of Chinese ceramics.

People focus on an era, but he focuses on the millennium inheritance.

On the shelf of his works, the sky blue of Ru kiln changed to plum blue of Longquan kiln, and the footsteps stepped from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty; when the blue and white of the blue and white turned into the red of Lang kiln, it entered the Qing Dynasty from the flowing water of the Yuan Dynasty. Elegant and luxurious.

For these achievements, Cai Xiaofang just smiled, claiming to be lucky.

In fact, the failures and excitements, frustrations and joys experienced in each exploration are silently absorbed into the flowing glaze.

Although porcelain is silent, it can best reflect people's hearts.

  Baodao pottery art originates from Chinese tradition, but it is not limited to tradition;

Ru kiln, Jun kiln, Lang kiln, blue and white...the beauty of Chinese traditions that have been circulating for thousands of years, glowing with new and infinite charm; plates, pots, cups, bottles, jars... These daily necessities that have returned again are in people's use. , which vividly interprets the aesthetics of contemporary life.

  In a sense, isn't the potter a magical alchemist?

Ceramics come from the soil and the earth. They used one heart and two hands, through countless days and nights, to embellish the unremarkable soil and glaze, making it a charming luster.

Their inheritance and innovation of culture have made Chinese ceramics shine in an international creative context, diverse and independent, full of lasting vitality.

  Among the utensils, there is a universe of its own.

After years of refinement, what remains unchanged is the persistence and persistence in pottery art, the reverence for traditional Chinese culture, and the common cultural roots and spiritual belonging of compatriots on both sides of the strait.

The process of making pottery is also a process of cultural identity.

The pottery art has witnessed the same root and the same origin on both sides of the strait, and the kiln fire that has not been extinguished for thousands of years illuminates the immortal ingenuity of the ages.

Text / Liu Xuezheng