Ceramic·Life·Xiamen
By Vivian Zhang


A meeting of the artists

这是一次传统与现代的碰撞, 东西方文化的融合. 本月17日, 来自5个国家的6名当代艺术家将在厦门国际银行大厦举行一场名为"陶瓷·生活·厦门"的国际瓷雕展, 相信会给您带去全新的视觉感受.

What is the consequence when modern art imagination strikes upon traditional art material? On December 17, an international porcelain sculpture exhibition "Ceramic·Life·Xiamen" organized by the Chinese European Art Center will kick off on the 3rd floor of the Xiamen International Bank Building (国际银行大厦) near the ferry station. Prior to the show, a Common Talk reporter interviewed two of the artists and organizers as well, Mr. Sigurdur Gudmundsson from Iceland and Mr. Stevens Vaughn from the USA.



Q: How did you come up with the idea of holding an international ceramic sculpture project?
A: More than a year ago, Ineke Gudmundsson, the director of CEAC and her husband Sigurdur Gudmundsson paid a visit to Dehua, the ceramic center of Fujian at the invitation of Rodney & Steven Vaughn. Inspired by what they saw in the ceramic factories and the wonderful collections of the Dehua Ceramic Technology Institute, a seemingly day-light dream struck their mind: to set up a genuine porcelain art museum in Xiamen.
CEAC then invited six artists from five countries, all the most renowned contemporary artists in each of their own countries, to create works here, which are supposed to be added to the collection of the future museum.



Q: When did you start to work and how did you solve the many problems in terms of obtaining technical support and materials, and cooperating with Chinese assistants?
A: We began to work in June. It so happened that this year is the 1000th anniversary of Jingdezhen, the ceramic capital of China. Mr. Liu, a ceramic master from Jingdezhen came to provide us the materials needed and technical support as well. After discussing with the artists, he decided whether their artistic ideas could be boiled down to the ceramic works and how.
A kiln was then established exclusively for the needs of the artists. It was a long procession of work. The artists had to exchange views with Chinese technicians, assistants and workers before each procedure. In spite of it all, they showed a fervent love for it and devoted themselves to the project wholeheartedly. Generally, they made several attempts until satisfaction was reached. As a result, the final works on the exhibition only accounted for a small portion of what they had produced.



Q: Of all the materials, including the popular and modern ones like metal and glass, why did you choose porcelain for your sculpture works?
A: Different materials pose a different challenge. Surely we love new and modern things, but sometimes we also feel the craving for traditional and old things that bring us assurance and steadiness like the anchor of life. To us, ceramic is one of such anchors.
In many religions and beliefs worldwide, men are created by clay and clay has its own soul. As a vital expression of culture, clay has played an important role throughout human being's history no matter in the East or the West. And ceramic is regarded as the most precious and beautiful gift all around the world. The ceramic producing technology has been developed in many places too. For example, our exhibits this time are the combination of multiple national technologies. Apart from techniques from Jingdezhen, the one called "Dolmite" from Italy was also adopted.

Q: How do you expect that the Xiamen audience will accept your art and what will you do with the exhibits after the show ends?
A: There are more than 10 exhibits in the show and each consists of as many as hundreds of small articles with the tallest one over three meters high. Actually, we think it is not the works themselves but the visions they carry that count most. It is amusing to see that the ceramic materials and the techniques are mostly Chinese whilst the works are of various styles speaking faithfully for the artists' own minds.
This exhibition will be opened to the public free of charge. The reason we chose the exhibition venue is that it is just opposite Gulangyu and the splendid scenery will hopefully add to the graceful ambience.
Maybe we will hold exhibitions outside of Xiamen after this one. In the long run, we hope there will be a foundation leading to the establishment of a ceramic museum in Xiamen. CEAC is aiming to invite more artists here and make Xiamen an international contemporary art site. We all love Xiamen and that is what we want to do for her.

Name list of the artists:
Sigurdur Gudmundsson Iceland
Jon Oscar Iceland
Stevens Vaughn the USA
Chen Wenling China
Klitsa Antoniou Cyprus
Bjorn Norgaard Denmark

Works of Minimalism
Collected by Vivian Zhang
Photo by Yao Fan



A sole installation exhibition titled "Patterns of Energy" by Ragna Robertsdottir from Iceland, opened last Friday at the Chinese European Art Center, Xiamen University.

Her work is closely related to the strong tradition of landscape and nature art in Iceland. Here is an unorthodox approach, using directly natural material and installing it in context with the surrounding architecture. Thus, she borders in some ways on Minimalism and land art. In the last decade and currently still, she has been focusing on walls (and sometimes ceilings) working with black lava, red pumice and shining obsidian.

The show will end on December 14.

A Man Apart 单刀直入

Genre类型: Crime/Action/Adventure/Drama 犯罪/动作/冒险/剧情 Plot outline 剧情: A mysterious man known only as Diablo takes over a powerful drug cartel when the former boss goes to prison.

Xiamen Kaiming Movie Complex 厦门天地开明电影城 7日起隆重上映该数字电影! 地址:江头北路69号 Ticket line: 5517918