[Visual Art] Find the beauty in the fragments of memories

Coating objects with mud, burning them in a kiln, and turning them into ceramics is Xie Shuting's day-to-day ceramic creation process, and it is also a process of destruction, transformation, and rebirth of life, how metaphysical. "By virtue of trauma, through creation, I want to build a beautiful world." She does not shy away from saying that her creation always starts from the individual. Behind her works are all stories of her and the people around her, all memories and states, "I I like to face myself through art.”

unopened diary

Xie Shuting's most well-known "Shirt" series has been burning for 20 years. Since its creation, there are still new works released. The original creative idea came from a love story. "At that time, I broke up with my first love boyfriend, and I felt a little guilty. I wanted to let go through my creation." In 2003, "SARS" broke out, and her pottery class teaching job was gone, so she simply stayed in In Fotan's studio, he buried his head in creation. "At that time, the Fotan Industrial Zone was not filled with art studios, but mostly warehouses. There were few people and it was very safe. I could concentrate on my creations."

She first soaked the clothes she wore in middle school and college in the mud, mixed the emotions that could not be explained, mixed the unsolvable thoughts, and put them in the kiln for firing, "I experimented with many, many clothes. , there may be ten or eight of the hundred pieces that are decent, and the others are broken into pieces, or they can’t be recognized at all.” At first, she made works in a folded form, like a diary that has never been opened. Or secretly, "I'm actually facing myself, creating and reflecting at the same time."

anything can burn

She said frankly that she wanted to forget about "burning clothes" at first, but if the real object no longer exists and is transformed into pottery, the original smell, texture, color, traces, dirt, as well as emotions and memories, are all gone and can be forgotten. I found that it's time to let go, not just a few shirts." She smiled wryly. So later, she wanted to do something that she wanted to remember, as a record, like a diary, "Whenever I do something and face myself, I create it."

In another relationship, not only clothes and towels, she even used cups and dishes to burn. "The glaze on the pattern is cooler. If it burns at high temperature, it will look like a faded photo, and the pattern will become hazy." The whole series was given to him, "In the end, it didn't, because it was sold, and of course the buyer didn't know the story."

For Xie Shuting, it seems that anything can be burned, such as leaves. "Different leaves have different thicknesses, and the degree of absorbing mud is very different. You have to try it many times." Every time she creates, she is like looking for a leaf in the rubble. There is also the original letter, which she tore up, mashed it in a blender, and made a paper kite-shaped white porcelain installation "Flying", which was exhibited at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in 2015. "Dream Space" exhibition. The map of Hong Kong can also be burnt. "I first painted on the rice paper with underglaze color, painted mud, and after burning, the rice paper disappeared, but the pattern remained on the porcelain." She also challenged the difficulty and made it the size of a slide. , "So the failure rate is very high." It is conceivable that most of her pottery creations are failures, "and it is also a process of learning failure."

Not only ceramics, but what materials she felt at that time would be used to create, "But ceramics are unique to me, and my method of creation is to immerse clothes in clay and then fold them, just like washing Just like clothes, the whole process is like washing the soul." The non-ceramic works include my brother's tricycle. When she was a child, her brother would dress up as a driver at home, ride a tricycle, and drive her around. "I collected clothes and felts from new friends in France, and made tricycles and bear dolls." The most mysterious thing is that she sewed I fell asleep at the wheel and had a dream, "We went back to our childhood and did things that we couldn't do before. It was like repairing the relationship, which made me feel relieved."

please handle with care

In fact, Xie Shuting is a person who is very afraid of losing, but the creation of pottery has taught her to let go. And she has too many things, so she reminded herself to burn some, "just like cutting hair", it's no big deal, isn't it another form of separation? However, she said that what can be burned is not the most important thing. She doesn't want to regret it in the future, and if she is not sure she can put it down, she will not burn it. Then she found that there are not so many things to burn, "Actually, neither do I. Then let it go."

There are also examples of important objects being burned, but the transformation of ceramics was unsuccessful. "It was the IKEA red fox toy that my son played with. I couldn't find it on eBay and Taobao later. He asked me where the fox was, and I said nothing. Say it's closed."

She will be exhibiting her new work in the "Shirt" series at Art Central. This time, the owners of the clothes are her children. "The "Shirt" series was originally a record of my growth, my memories of middle school and college, then my parents, and now my children." The clothes of the little brothers and sisters from one to nine years old were transformed into fifteen ceramic works, which will be presented in the exhibition. In the Touch Gallery booth, it is displayed in turn. Its light color and wrinkled texture make it hard to believe that it is not real cloth clothes, whether it is viewed from a distance or close up. "Children grow fast, and clothes are getting bigger and bigger." Remember, it's early.

The past is not as good as smoke, even if you burn things down, after transformation, you can be reborn again. However, memories are like ceramics, and ceramics are like memories. They can be broken by blowing a bullet, and can be broken by touching. Please handle with care.

(Original published in the supplement of Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily" on May 19, 2022)