The Monuments are sculptures investigating materiality, historical
context, and the connection
between them.
These sculpture are the result of a month long residency at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Located in northeastern Jiangxi
province, Jingdezhen is
the known as the porcelain
Capital of the world. There is
a 2,000 year history of porcelain in this city, involving
emperor’s kilns and production
for the PRC under Mao’s rule.
There are a multitude of local,
and now international, artisans
working with ceramics here.
I began collecting and organizing discarded molds
Nowhere else is the world is the ceramic processes so ubiquitous. I found molds in the dumpster, in abandoned factories, on construction sites, and embedded into the local environment.
Abandoned factories were full of discarded molds and ceramics, both functional and sculptural
This is my favorite dumpster, used by several mold shops to dispose of failed molds and masters.
Mold-making was so common that I was able to find buildings using scrap molds for bricks.
Through generations of ceramic production, these molds reveal the complex history of Jingdezhen.
Some highlights include:
-The Pottery Workshop’s dog statuette
-Buddha heads & religious idols
-Statues of Mao & Stalin
-contemporary CNC’d molds for awards
These molds were reassembled to create new
structures. Porcelain was poured in then out. The forms were “excavated” by removing the molds one by one.
structures. Porcelain was poured in then out. The forms were “excavated” by removing the molds one by one.
The sculptures were fired in a public high temp kiln. They were left unglazed to showcase the “super white” porcelain unique to the area.
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