Stoneware dish, Longquan kilns

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Stoneware dish

Longquan kilns

Stoneware Dish is part of ‘In the Chinese Ceramics Gallery’ written by Sarah Howe. It explores issues of travel and identity in sixteenth and seventeenth century England and today. The film is commissioned by The Poetry Society in collaboration with Oxford University for TIDEfest 2021

Poem by Sarah Howe

Film by Aindri C

Thanks to Helmie Stil, Judith Palmer, Nandini Das

The poem raises attention to material process of production and transformation- kilns in China to the cabinets and mantelpieces in Europe. I used the technique of floating ink known as suminagashi or ebru to recreate the potter’s wheel.

I then animated the marbled paper which became the canvas on which objects were placed. Sometimes they represented maps, sometimes cracks in the porcelain. The journey of these pieces along the Silk Route mostly ended up as part of shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean. Many had precious metal handle and base added to them when they arrived in Europe thus changing their original function.