Lin Wang

Still Life - 24th of February - 27th of March 2022

Text by Margrete Abelsen, Utstillingsprodusent at Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art

photographer: Aliona Pazdniakova

-Using globalization as a backdrop Wang brings representations of trade in goods, cultural and political exchanges, the sea, seafarers, and the body into contemporary discourse.

Lin Wang Still Life 24th of February - 27th of March In her first major solo exhibition in Trondheim, artist Lin Wang presents recently produced artworks in porcelain, large scale sculptures and a series of integrated video works. Using globalization as a backdrop, she brings representations of trade in goods, cultural and political exchanges, the sea, seafarers and the body into contemporary discourse.

In her long term research project Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings, embarked upon in 2016, Lin Wang presents installations of delicate porcelain, performance pieces and other media that create narratives about the East and the West.

At Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art, Wang presents the next part of her project - Still Life. The still life’s portraiture of vanitas and beauty has fascinated humans for centuries, especially the message of memento mori and that nothing lasts forever. The genre painting reached its golden age in the Netherlands around the 17th century and appealed to the senses through its portraiture of precious objects, flowers, exotic birds, animals, food- and drinks. In the exhibition, we find several installations of classical still lifes, placed as souvenirs in beautiful museum vitrines, and as a lavishly laid still life table with hand-painted and gilded porcelain sculptures of animals and exclusive foods. The contents of the vitrines have a distinctly curious and historic character, and it is a mix of typical elements from the genre painting; “exotic” fruits, pieces of meats, suggestive oysters and gilded animals and insects. The countless references, in choice of materials and motives, are closely intertwined, layer upon layer, and continuously shifts our perspective and gaze.

In Wang’s fabulating universe, the classical Chinese tradition for stylized blue landscapes is intertwined with the tradition of sailor tattoos. Ships, swallows, pin-ups, roses and religious symbols are carefully hand-painted alongside eastern landscapes in characteristic cobalt blue pigments. Both traditions have a simplified language, key elements and symbols. The crew on Captain James Cook’s ships were the first from the west to get tattoos as memories of their travels to the great tattoo cultures of Japan, China and the Pacific Islands. During the Second World War, tattoos became standard amongst American marines stationed outside Honolulu, where Sailor Jerry became known for his distinct Old-School style that we associate with sailor tattoos and that today decorates a lot of non-sailing people's arms and legs. Decorative Chinese porcelain of today is based on motifs from the Netherlands that originally were replicas of Chinese originals, produced before the 17th century. These motives have become sort of homeless as a consequence of constant replication and travel between different cultures.

In the large porcelain sculpture “Souvenir Globe Girl”, which almost has a 1:1 scale, the ceramic materials are stretched to its outermost potential for what is physically possible. The sculpture is covered in a fine layer of porcelain and partially gilded with golden glaze. The risque pin-up motif has become a three-dimensional figure holding a massive globe on her shoulders, thus replacing classical images of the Greek mythical figure Atlas. The globe draws a map of cobalt blue Old-School tattoos. This colour is associated with decorative fine china, although the 2 cobalt ore was imported from old Persia and not adopted by Chinese craftsmen until the 9th century. The placement of “Souvenir Globe Girl” on top of a European pool pallet, used for transportation, underlines the continuum of travel from one place to another. Thus Wang reveals threads of history complexly interwoven through import, export, adaptation and beliefs about the exotic and the poetic potential in the misunderstandings that can arise.

The luxurious goods portrayed in Dutch still lifes were made available through the naval power and early colonial expansion of the West. The historical still life paintings of the golden age are therefore also symbols of the power of the West and its exploitation and exotification of the East. The trade routes along the Silk Road went between Europe and East-Asia and made cultural, political and religious exchange possible. But it was also a quest for conquering the unknown exotic and establishing empires.

The exhibition culminates in an installation of sculptural elements forming a visual feast or cornucopia. Beautiful “exotic” animals, Chinese pots and plates, peacock feathers, a piece of flesh gilded inside and painted with a motif of Jesus' face - estranged by all the times it has been replicated, and a wealth of exclusive foods. The sculptural elements form a landscape that is underlined by three video works where body, ornamentation and horizons merge together. Like a virtuoso, Wang blends the elegant and beautiful with disturbing and kitsch-like elements that have been added elegantly and beautifully, such as tattooed pieces of skin, poorly executed sailor tattoo-motives, a decapitated prince and a bull's head. Lin Wang's installation is a visual feast and evokes associations with the beauty and rich symbolism of Dutch still life paintings, while at the same time eliciting a sense of discomfort and unrest of the stories told about the East and the West.

Several elements of this exhibition were made possible to produce through a residency at Ringebu Centre for Ceramic Art. Wang has received support from Arts Council Norway, The Audio and Visual Fund, and Regional Project Funding for Visual Art.

May 2023- May 2025

Bunad Tattoo Shop

https://youtu.be/QN1gt7-J3Rw?si=JS-2s9V8h4Afshlz

Wangs (noe selvbiografiske) bidrag til Skakke Folkedrakter tematiserer identitet i endring, tilpasning i møte med ny kultur og den intime sårbarheten som ligger i å skulle beholde deler av seg selv, men samtidig tilpasse seg en blivende kultur og tradisjon på et nytt sted i en globalisert verden. Det er et blikk på folkedrakten sett gjennom Wangs øyne og posisjon. Hva er greit å tviholde på, og hvilke deler av sin egen hud kan man (bokstavelig talt) skrape vekk fra egen kropp, i prosessen ved å fornye seg i møte med en ny kultur.

Installasjonen tar form av et tablå der en krukke på størrelse med kroppslig skala, formet av porselen, ruver på toppen av en isbjørnaktig landskap, formet av fargerike frynser inspirert av koftetørklet i den samiske folkedrakten. Kvitebjørn kong Valemon, malt av Theodor Kittelsen er en åpenbar referanse. Krukken er tradisjonell med håndmalte landskaper utført i koboltblå, men felter av tatovert menneskehud dekker halve overflaten og skaper en meningsbærende ambiguitet. Det ligger en humor i arbeidet, men i dypet en beskrevet sårbarhet, nakenhet og ensomhet. Sistnevnte tre punkter forsterkes av at verket skjuler seg bak en tradisjonell orientalsk sjalusi, en type skillevegg som er gjenkjennelig fra tattoveringsstudioer verden over. Sjalusien er brodert med tradisjonelle mønstre, gjenkjennelige fra den norske bunadstradisjonen.

Wang skulpterer og håndmaler verket selv. En moderne vri på tradisjonshåndverket er, som alltid i hennes kunsterskap, et gjennomgående tema.

Rhapsody & Still Life

10.10.2019 - 16.01.2020 Oslo, Norway

— The text is written by Jarle Strømodden, director of The Vigeland Museum

photo: Bent Renè Synnevåg

RHAPSODY

More than 20000 identically shaped pieces make the Installation «Rhapsody» in Room Vi. Each piece is hand-painted and is shaped as If a blue stream from the window towards Vigelands Fountain. The same small hand-painted pieces were used to make the installation «Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings» in Kunsthall Grenland in 2019, Even though the artist is using the same starting point, the final work creates a set of different perspectives for the spectator. A prototype was produced in Porsgrunn, at the porcelain factory. This was used as a basis for the industrial production in China of the pieces. The colour spectrum shows silver, white, brown, and various shades of blue. The dark blue, cobalt, is historically related to Germany, China, and in Norway to both Porsgrunn, and Blaafarveverket at Modum. From early on cobalt was mined, and it was an extremely expensive colour. Sometime during the 19th century, the synthetical ultramarine was invented, It became less expensive, and also more available, forcing cobalt mining companies, such as Blaafarveverket , out of business. The mines closed for good in 1898. The history of trade is connecting cities, countries, and continents together, and we find a similar multi-national and cultural connection in the work «Rhapsody».

STILL LIFE

On a round table, neatly set, is a number of hand-painted objects. They are made of porcelain and are both oversized dinner plates, meat pieces, and a pelvis. They have all various tattoos on them, which the artist has collected from former sailors. They would get a tattoo whenever in a port, somewhere far away from home, and they function as visual memories. For instance, only sailors who had sailed south of the African continent could get a tall ship tattoo on their chest or back, and thus prove they had been to some exotic place. The installation takes its inspiration from Dutch still life from the 17th century. In these painting, you will see objects of desire, expensive and exotic goods, spices, and in short, they would illustrate the trade and exchange the Low Countries had with the far east at that time. The still life of Lin Wang is complex and sometimes full of contrasting relationships. It is, perhaps, a wish to illustrate the historical exchange of both commercial and cultural goods. Still, if you look closer, there is something deeply disturbing. A piece of meat with tattoos. A bone, also with tattoos. An anchor with a spine. There is undoubtedly a feeling of the Heimlich/Unheimlich in this scene. Lin Wang is, in a subtle way, challenging our way of seeing. The better you look, the more you see. But that is not always for the better.

Saturday 18 September, 2021, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway

Photographer: Aliona Pazdniakova

Pin-up china Girl is a performance that tries to visualize issues related to stereotypes. Wang uses experiences and perspectives from her own life as an Asian woman living in western society. During the performance, she acts as a tattooed pin-up girl, dressed in a porcelain installation in the form of a bikini top.

Video documentation:

1.5 min video edited version

Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstanding - Performance Dinner aims to create a platform for communication where new and old social issues can be brought up in a courteous yet effective manner. The project constitutes of porcelain artworks inspired by the Eurasian Maritime Silk Road, food and a thematic concert.

The curiosity and imagination of “the other side of the world ” is universal to human beings in ancient and modern times. Maritime activities shaped the histories of the East and the West. Ocean was the first mediator that bridged cultures and connected people.

The guests come together for a friendly meal during which the dinner table becomes a platform for the exchange of thoughts. When the food is eaten, the symbolism and expressions of the artworks on the gigantic dinnerwares are discovered.

The project started in 2015 and since then, new concept and artworks have been continuously developed and expanded through performance dinners and exhibitions. The project aims to reach out to groups or segments in our society that are not necessarily familiar with visual arts. Throughout this project I also like to examine and experience the use of Soft Power in both a cultural and political exchange.

Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstanding

Project description:

1. My Personal Experience and Understanding of ‘Exotic dreams’ and ‘Poetic misunderstanding’

Through my upbringing in China, I considered Europe to be an exotic world, partly due to the political dichotomy that separated the West from the East. It was during that time my ‘exotic dreams’ and ‘poetic misunderstanding’ of the West fermented and grew. I formulated the concept of ‘poetic misunderstanding’ as a result of attempting to explore the theme of ‘imagination’ and the cultural curiosity the West and the East had about each other. Herein, the histories of the West and the East as embodied in the production, export and interpretation of porcelain are treated as complex cultural-cognitive processes intertwined with my own subjective place-to-place experiences. Practically, I wish to elucidate these histories through contemporary art. My project seeks to illuminate

and transform the concepts of ‘exotic dreaming’ and ‘poetic misunderstanding’ through metaphoric imageries of sailors’ tattoos of the West, and blue and white paintings on porcelain of the East. The project also depicts the moment when poetic misunderstanding from both West and East cross over each other simultaneously and cultural exchanges occur – often at a subliminal level.

2. World of Metaphors and Reconsideration of History

Imagery of the ocean embodies idealization of the unknown. People relate to the ocean in various ways. The color blue, which is alluding to the ocean, is prevailing in both tattoos and Chinese porcelain. Europe encountered China through porcelain. However, elements of ideology and symbolism associated with the East were not easily accessible through the familiar cobalt blue pigments and hand- painted imagery. As the porcelain market grew in Europe from the 16th century onwards, the production and exportation of porcelain facilitated a form of cultural transaction between China and Europe.

European importers would bring European made sketches or models of tableware forms over the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and across South- east Asia to Guangdong harbour and then further on to Jingdezhen, where they requested Chinese artisans to replicate the designs in porcelain and decorate the final products with Chinese patterns. Although Chinese artisans did not have any knowledge of the western table culture that this tableware was a product of, for instance not knowing how a sauceboat functioned, they took up the challenges to create moulds and to paint patterns based upon these models. This cultural exchange based on the cultural appropriation of physical models and selected Chinese patterns took place in such

a way that the exported items embodied the Europeans’ interpretation of China’s ‘exoticness’ rather than creating a cultural and social insight.

Through my experience of living in Europe, I noticed that this “selected exoticness” is still very present in the mass media. The two different ideologies from the East and West are often still present in our daily life in invisible ways.

It is from this interchange of cultural fragments I derive the concept of ‘poetic misunderstanding’. In my point of view, the artist actively engages in the social life of the place he lives in. I kept considering the relations between myself and immediate society and culture, in addition to how an artist should come to terms with these relations. I also thought about how I experienced the differences and similarities of both cultures and how these can be bridged through the art practice. I look forward to discovering new perspectives on related topics through the performance dinner, which go beyond the horizons of my own cultural epistemology.

The program of the performance dinner at KODE:

It began with a guest performer playing Dionysus serving wine from the heart-shaped wine fountain. Then the audience was invited to enjoy the food made according to different cuisines along the Maritime Silk Road and listen to the retired sailors I scouted from local communities singing old verses, poetry from their days travelling the world on board trading ships. As the audience was finishing up the food and immersed in the music, the symbolic patterns of the blue and white porcelain wares appear before them, along with the sailors’ tattooed mermaids, pin-ups girls, tall ships and anchors.

Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstanding - Performance dinner is developed by artist Lin Wang. The line-up is in collaboration with Espen Horne, who will DJ and play exotic tunes with Stig Paa throughout the evening. Also, Maria Øy Lojo is invited by Lin Wang to make a video installation as part of Wang’s performance. The installation is Øy Lojo’s manifest of the dialogue between her own project Stilleben and Wang’s sculptures and performance.

The Performance dinner is co-produced by Prøverommet - BIT Teatergarasjen, in collaboration with KODE, and supported by Bergen Kommune and Norsk Kulturråd.

Photography：Bent René Synnevåg

March-May 2022

«LUCK & DESTINY. A Porcelain Cabinet», 1st June - 14th August 2022 Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum (National Museum of Decorative Arts ) - Stiftsgården, Trondheim, Norway

Curators: Steffen Wesselvold Holden and Solveig Lønmo

The history of ceramics stretches back thousands of years. Although ceramic works are easy to break, many ancient objects still look like they did when they were first made. The colours and frequently fantastic patterns and motifs endure for millennia. The ceramic objects around us thus represent connections to earlier times.

They also link us to other places. The European history of porcelain is defined by journeys across the ocean and by a fascination for things distant and unknown. While the Chinese had produced porcelain – the hard, glass-like ware made of kaolinite clay mixed with minerals – since the Han Dynasty (25–200 AD), the recipe for making it was an unsolved riddle for Europeans until the early 1700s. In the meantime, ‘the white gold’ represented something unachievable. European ceramicists drew inspiration from the forms and glazed motifs of Chinese porcelain vases and made imitations in faience (earthenware). The so-called ‘chinoiserie’ thus represent both mania and misunderstanding. The porcelain exported from China – objects often made specifically for the European market and taste – were sent to Europe in the 1600s via trading companies such as the Dutch East India Company. Teacups with handles and noble coats of arms were commissioned – and the customers were both rich and demanding.

When the original 18th-century wallpapers in the room now called The Chinese Cabinet were restored in 2017, the theory was launched that this room could originally have been a porcelain cabinet. The painted wall motifs show an Eastern landscape seen through a Western lens; Chinese gardens are interpreted in a European rococo style. Mrs Schøller (1720–1786), being the well-travelled noblewoman she was, probably owned valuable Chinese porcelain as well as modern German Meissen porcelain. When she commissioned the building of Stiftsgården (1778), it was still more than a century before porcelain production began here in Norway (1887). The room must have been a demonstration of both cultural and financial capital, and it may have kindled envy amongst those who only owned simpler ceramic goods and who had never been abroad. But if they were invited to Stiftsgården as guests, the Chinese cabinet would have sent their imagination sailing to distant lands. The tea they were served in porcelain cups and the scent of the oranges in Mrs Schøller’s orangery would have contributed also.

With this selection of objects from the collection of Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, we shed light on ‘the journey’ as both a technical and a symbolic phenomenon in the history of ceramics. The magnificent Chinese objects are highlighted. In addition to being focus points in the exhibition, they are also the starting point and inspiration for the other works, all of which are made elsewhere several centuries later. Can we still talk about chinoiseries and an exotifying gaze on the Other? Or are manias replaced by mutual artistic respect? Lin Wang’s (b. 1985) porcelain sculpture Souvenir Globe Girl (2021) has seafarer tattoos painted in cobalt blue – even the female figure with the planet Earth on her shoulders is based on such a tattoo. Her glazed golden hair is perceived as pointing precisely to the 18th-century tendency towards exaggeration, and together with words like ‘luck’ and ‘destiny’, she becomes an image of cliches that simultaneously represent something very serious to seafarers far from their mother or a sweetheart. The globe girl personifies globalisation and cultural exchange, trade and influence, passion and a longing for adventure. Right under Mrs Schøller’s portrait on the wall in the antechamber, the globe girl shows the way into the big wide world in little Trondheim.

Mezzanine Gallery, United Nations Office Geneva, Switzerland.

Curator and text: Ingunn Svanes Almedal

In the cultural exchange between Asia and Europe, many an exotic dream about “the other” has given rise to poetic misunderstandings. Lin Wang’s "Still Life. Gaze from the East" is an extravagant installation in which the East and the West come together in one and the same gaze, resulting in humoristic outcomes and unpredictable interpretations. The seaman has been given the leading role as messenger and bearer of new insights, painstakingly immortalised by Wang`s processed tattoos on porcelain

Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings project -The silk Roads

Solo Exhibition

Kunsthall Grenland, 2019 Spring

The Ingredients (Thinking Through Materials)

On Lin Wang’s Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings - The Silk Roads, exhibition at Kunsthall Grenland, 05.04 — 26.05, 2019.

Text/curator: Randi Grov Berger

Different shades of cobalt blue is used to color the more than thirty thousand handmade porcelain pieces part of Norwegian-based, Chinese-born artist Lin Wang’s laborious installation. There is smaller object based work, where she is representing the human anatomy of spinal cord, bones, flesh, and tangent planes of the human brain richly decorated with symbols relating to her cultural background, and to traditions within the field of porcelain, as well as new Western influences (like sailor’s tattoos), and for the most part a mash-up and reinterpretation of all these, which includes some Poetic Misunderstandings. Wang is connecting similarities in our expressions, linking them through trade, like the old maritime silk roads, and on-going cultural exchange, and seeing this in connection to the on-going ambitious new Silk Roads. Exotic Dreams relates to how she as a youngster was told myths about the North, how she later moved to Norway and got face-to-face with a different reality than expected, and at the same time how she saw her country of birth anew from a distance. This exoticism of ‘the other’ is something found in all corners of the world, as we’re in a continual process of constructing our own narratives, whilst imagining, relating to and interpreting other cultures. 

Lin Wang points out that the cultures we create and the beliefs we project on others - are in a continual back and forth negotiation. In her work she tries to understand China and Norway (and beyond) through her art making, and so far she has successfully used her craft to bridge cultures through creating dynamic conversations through her performances and exhibitions. Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings - The Silk Roads at Kunsthall Grenland is her largest exhibition to date, where she’s used both her studio in Jingdezhen, China, and her temporarily studio in Porsgrunn, Norway, in creating works that also becomes an assembly of different clays, glazes, and other materials (like gold) originating from around the world.

When she moved to Norway some years ago (2014) and started the master program at the art academy in Bergen, the ceramic department there was in a state of flux, being a workshop but not a separate field of study any longer. The ceramic scene itself had been through a period of changes as contemporary craft had become increasingly conceptual, and contemporary art had gone deeper and deeper into materials and craftsmanship. Wang brought a strong awareness of tradition within her field, and an enthusiasm to re-appropriate, transform and continue to develop the knowledge and character of contemporary porcelain, she found new ways to steer her ship in these rough waters, and put herself in the middle of the continually on-going theoretical contemporary craft discourse. As a visual artist using performance, conversation and installation, including extravagantly decorated dinner tables with her highly ornamented blue-and-white porcelain ware, flowers, wine, food from all corners of the world, shanty choirs performing powerful shanties from working days on-board sailing ships in the old days, and as well the art of tattooing; she speaks even more so to all our senses and touches the limbic system of our brain, giving us a direct experience of her concepts.

ELEMENTS

Kunsthall Grenland is located in Porsgrunn, which has a rich geological history that extends over a billion years. Partly the area is situated on what is called the Norwegian bedrock, which consists of granite and gneiss. Part of the center of Porsgrunn is positioned on a seabed initially formed south of the equator, which is hard to get our heads around. Here we’ll find sandstones, slate stone and limestone with rich organic content, which have laid the foundation for several industries in the area. Limestone once formed at the bottom of a tropical sea, with their beautiful ancient sea creature fossils to prove it, can now be used in cement, in plastics, paper and toothpaste.

Further north of Porsgrunn is Buskerud where cobalt laid the foundation for a lucrative industry that was in operation from 1776 to 1848 (and with reduced activity until 1898). The cobalt works (Blaafarveværket) exported up to 80% of the world's cobalt, which was sold to countries as far away as China. Cobalt was used for bleaching paper, and its blue pigments were prized for their intense color, which could be used in the glass and porcelain production because it was withstanding those really high temperatures essential in these production processes. Cobalt was once more precious than silver. When the mines closed down it was partly due to competition from synthetic ultramarine that was invented in 1826, and replaced much of the need of cobalt.

Another location to zoom into related to Wang’s installation is the Chinese village Gaoling in Jiangxi Province. Gaoling roughly translates as ‘tall hill’, and the area had a rich supply of white clay, which the word Kaolin (from Gaoling) derives from. Today the main use of the mineral kaolinite is the production of paper; its use ensures the gloss on some grades of coated paper. It’s also used in cosmetics, toothpaste, and can be used as medicine to soothe an upset stomach. It is world known as one of the main components of porcelain clay, and in the village close by, namely Jingdezhen; porcelain production originated and still flourishes today.

I find it quite absorbing to contemplate how the raw materials traceable to stars in our galaxy have moved and gradually formed the planet. How they are being extracted in most recent times, and are circulating rapidly through changing trading routes, linked to how our new habits form, and how the world economy grow and continually fluctuate. Their usage is shifting alongside human inventions, new technology and changing climate. It’s continually relevant to keep asking; where do we get them, what do we use them for and how do they fit into our economy?

COBALT BLUE

Let’s take a closer look at one of the chemical elements, which is one of the basic building blocks of the universe. This is the material that we know were mined in the mentioned cobalt works of Buskerud, and it’s as well one of the main components of Wang’s new work in the exhibition.

It actually took scientists about 300 years to lie out the Periodic Table into neat rows and columns, and in 1735 Swedish chemist Georg Brandt (1694–1768) was credited with discovering the cobalt (symbol Co and atomic number 27), as a new "semi-metal”. Cobalt is not found as a free element, but in other minerals in the Earth's crust. Brandt proved that compounds of cobalt metal were the source of the blue color used in glass, which previously had been attributed to the bismuth found with cobalt.

Cobalt ore is also a byproduct to copper and nickel, and difficult to extract, the smelting process is quite messy. Partly therefor it got named after the kobold, spirits thought to live underground. Superstitious miners believed they lured them into taking worthless ore that caused a burning sensation to those who handled them. Medieval miners blamed the sprite for the poisonous and troublesome nature of the typical arsenical ores of this metal (cobaltite and smaltite) which polluted other mined elements. Some thought the kobold creatures to be expert miners and metalworkers that could be heard constantly drilling, hammering, and shoveling. Some stories claim that the kobolds live in the rock, just as human beings live in the air.

The color blue gained special significance in the history of Chinese ceramics during the Tang dynasty (618-907). In the 9th century, Chinese artisans abandoned the Han blue color they had used for centuries, and began to use cobalt blue. The cobalt ores was first imported from Persia, where it was a scarce ingredient at the time and used in only limited quantities. In the Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties in particular, different types of cobalt ore and methods of application determined the distinctive feature of the shades of blue that appeared on blue-and-white porcelain ware. The plates and vases were shaped, dried, the paint applied with a brush, covered with a clear glaze, then fired at a high temperature.

WHITE GOLD

Porcelain was discovered by a lucky surprise when ancient Chinese people found some strange, exceptionally hard and solid pieces of material at their outdoor fireplaces after the fire was put out. Mixing and firing local types of earth, they started to create simple jugs and bowls. Thanks to the creative ideas and experiments during the years, porcelain became whiter and whiter. Imagining seeing porcelain with its almost glass-like appearance 2000 years ago, when we know it was made in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. Following the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD) was the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) and the rise in popularity in the art of tea drinking. Ceramics wares including teacups were touted all along the northern Silk Road, which ran from Xian and up along the Hexi Corridor.

Porcelain is still such a breathtaking medium to this day. The European name, porcelain in English, come from the old Italian porcellana (cowrie shell) because of its resemblance to the surface of the shell. Porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries. Beginning in the 14th century, porcelain was exported in large quantity to Europe where it inspired a whole style of art, called Chinoiserie. By the early sixteenth century - after Portugal established trade routes to the Far East and began commercial trade with Asia - Chinese potters began to produce objects specifically for export to the West, and porcelains began to arrive in some quantity.

As the export trade increased, so did the demand from Europe for familiar, utilitarian forms, such as mugs, ewers, and candlesticks. These forms were unknown in China, so models were sent to the Chinese potteries to be copied. Its production and exportation facilitated a form of cultural transaction between Far East and Europe. This cultural exchange based on the appropriation of physical models and selected Chinese patterns took place in such a way that the exported items embodied the Europeans’ reading of China’s ‘exoticness’ rather than creating cultural and social insight. An unusually early example of export porcelain is a water jug decorated with the royal arms of Portugal; the arms are painted upside down, however—a reflection of the unfamiliarity of the Chinese with the symbols and customs of their new trading partner.

The Dutch had a lively trade with China and in the 17th century it imported millions of pieces of Chinese porcelain. With the Jingdezhen porcelain as a model, Dutch ceramic artists created their own unique ceramics. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Dutch Delftware ceramics became known worldwide and promoted as a typical Dutch product. However, the first Delft Blue ceramics were an ordinary copy of the traditional blue and white porcelain crafted in Jingdezhen. Delft Blue was not made from typical porcelain clay, but from clay that was coated with a tin glaze after it was fired. Delft Blue achieved unrivaled popularity, and at its peak, there were 33 factories in Delft. Of these, the only one remaining is Royal Delft, which us still in production.

With the appearance of many porcelain factories in Europe, the demand for Chinese export porcelain began to diminish, and by the second half of the century the trade was in serious decline. The porcelain industry also found its way to Porsgrunn, where Porsgrunn Porselænsfabrikk was established in 1885. The river Ælva and exsisting shipping provided good opportunities for bringing home raw materials and shedding finished products. The ingredients quartz and feldspar was found close by, and kaolin and coal could be brought on ships, with these components they could make their own blend. In the 18th century, porcelain had been an extremely luxurious product in Europe. Social reforms and a higher standard of living during the 19th century meant that demand for porcelain increased sharply. Porsgrunn was favorable for shipping to a large and growing market in Norway and Sweden, and soon got famous for their quality and design, such as the blue and white straw patterened tableware set.

Having the secret was one thing, but making porcelain was never easy. It’s still a difficult process where so many things need to be perfected before you can even get started. It’s hard to imagine when holding a porcelain object the long journey the material has been through getting to this end. There is the material extract, perfection of the blend between components like kaolin and water. Then the mold making, made about 20% larger then the finished design, the finishing touches after first firing, and customized glazes and colors, patterns, then the scary part of the “make it or brake it” last firing at up to 1400 °C degrees, which can led to either cracks or perfection. When perfectly finished, the properties associated with porcelain include low permeability and elasticity; considerable strength, hardness, toughness, whiteness, translucency and resonance; and a high resistance to chemical attack and thermal shock.

CRAFTING CONVERSATIONS

Today most of the production of porcelain making in Norway is flagged out. At most, Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik had more than 500 employees and the factory was one of the district's largest and most important companies right up to the 1990s. Still some porcelain is produced in Porsgrunn, and the "straw pattern" in cobalt blue is still painted by the local specialists by hand. But just like Blaafarveværket these productions sites are turning increasingly into museums and tourist attractions, making the service industry their new business.

What is worrisome as most of the production of the things we own happen elsewhere, is that we live in a time where we are losing touch with the materials we surround ourselves with in everyday life, like teacups, clothes, or even smartphones. We don’t know where the materials come from; who made them and the time it took to get them to us. To get back to cobalt again, the metal have unique magnetic properties, making it essential in modern technology. We can read about how China has increasingly a stranglehold over its supply with their large investments in infrastructure in Africa, part of the one belt, new initiative project. This is now also (a quick Google search tells us) a material associated with conflict, child labor and unethical production, like so many other raw materials are. Currently there are a team of researchers working on mapping critical minerals in Europe, to see where they appear and if there is a potential to extract them, so we can not exclude the possibility that perhaps there will be cobalt (and other minerals) mining industries in Norway again in the future for new purposes.

Lin Wang, like many craft based artists, offers a contrast to the mass produced object. The past months she has shared her time between her studios in Porsgrunn and Jingdezhen. She’s been involved at the Porsgrunn Porcelain Fabric, both in her own temporarily studio there and as a workshop leader, including holding blue glaze experiments with the fabrics employers. The tools and processes are still very much the same, but it’s it still relevant to make porcelain objects today with a new perspective, and as a form for cultural building, critical thinking, and opening up for conversation and new sensations. We have the technology to 3d print objects, but the hand made have a relevance that goes beyond the industrial. The project Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings- The Silk Roads is part of a continuing investigative long-time project that she is determined to continue over the next years. By involving different practitioners from other fields in discourses on seeing and knowing -influenced by our condition of colonialism and globalization – she is maintaining porcelains relevance. She invites audiences to unsettle their assumptions and conventional understandings of history, society, and culture, as she by situating her work in the long genealogy of global trade brings to the front examples of cultural exchange where authenticity has gone lost in time.

By using the history of our past as a mirror in understanding our contemporary life and by using porcelain as a means, Lin Wang’s journey connects the past and the present, as she speaks about the curiosity and imagination of “the other side of the world” as universal to human beings in both ancient and modern times.

In Lin Wang’s installations and performance dinners, you might find yourself eating from tableware with motifs that by the first apperance seems like Chinese paterns, but which are based on motifs established through the Delftware porcelain in the Netherlands, and these again were imitations of Chinese originals, in a forth-and-back interpretation.

3 March – 27 April 2017

SiC! Gallery, Wrocław，Poland

Sofia Coppola’s cult movie Lost in Translation shows subtly and implicitly two Americans stranded across the ocean, in Tokyo. Their contact with the culture of the East is often accompanied by a sense of alienation, loneliness, comicality bordering on absurdity, and above all the awkwardness which usually appears when cultures clash, between the lines.

Lin Wang is a Chinese visual artist working in porcelain, living in Norway for the past three years. Her life experience, relationships with the surroundings and participation in the social life of both countries have committed her to reflecting on differences and similarities between the two distinct cultures, as well as attempting to find in her creative work a bridge between the West and East. Growing up in China and raised on stories from the Scandinavian mythology told by her grandfather, Lin has been dreaming the exotic dreams of the Occident since early childhood. Studying the Old Continent’s history, she realised to what degree the production, export and trade of Chinese porcelain at its commercial peak, i.e. in the 17th century, influenced the mutual understanding of both cultures. It was then that the artist coined the phrase “poetic misunderstandings”, attempting to examine and juxtapose the interplay of colourful images, traditions and histories of the two distant realities. In time, the term has become rooted in her work to mean a universal cognitive process of studying dissimilarity.   

Currently based in Bergen, the artist often comes back to China, where she works in close co-operation with the local porcelain masters. Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings vol. 2 is a continuation of the artist’s quest. The exhibition was prepared specially for the purposes of the SiC! Gallery in Jingdezhen, the porcelain art and manufacturing mecca, wherein the 17th-century importers from Europe brought sketches and forms of tableware. The commissioned replicas of European utensils were often completely alien to Chinese ideas. Europeans would also order the traditional, famous cobalt blue images on chinaware, except the commissioned scenes were connected with domestic traditions and history. Done meticulously and with utmost care, they often became comical, distorted (the Chinese did not use perspective) representations of biblical and mythological scenes. Paradoxically though, in the eyes of the buyer, such objects were a fulfilment of exotic, romantic dreams of the Orient.   

Contrary to artists of the past, Lin plays with the convention – she mixes the Chinese tradition of the cobalt blue imagery with Norway’s strongly rooted tradition of sailors’ tattoos. In Bergen, everybody is indirectly or directly connected with the sea and sailing. For me, nautical tattoos have become a medium through which I imagine life at sea, says the artist. Back in the times when sea trade was not industrialised yet, working at sea required both physical and mental strength from the sailors. Visions of the ocean as an intercultural transit route were invariably connected with idealising the unknown. The exciting dreams of unexplored, unconquered lands were visualised by means of a needle and ink.

In the brave, harsh but romantic world of sailors, the tattoo is a record of adventure, experience and dream, a prophecy, a charm, a memory of sexual initiation. Its allegorical value, simplicity, linearity and the blue colour of ink, all resemble the style of the Chinese imagery. Poetic misunderstandings appear between the finesse of the Chinese porcelain and the straightforward brutality of the seamen’s tattoos, between the scale forms of European tableware and the Chinese genre scenes. Just as in Miss Hong Kong, a work in which Lin swaps female archetypes. In place of the traditional Chinese figure, a petite woman depicted with half-closed eyes and in a subservient bow, she tattoos on porcelain an erotically bent pin-up girl from a sailor’s dream, towering over the male character. In this way, she contests the Chinese canon of representing gender. The ambiguous East/West and tradition/contemporaneity relationships created by the artist bravely enter the field of visual kitsch and naivety. They engage in a witty, free dialogue about history, religion, tradition, social preferences and exotic dreams. There is no aggression or fear in them. They are records of dissimilarity and diversity. Of what cannot be told. Sometimes it is lost in translation; sometimes it is read between the lines.

A performance/feast will be held during the opening

For me, inviting people to dinner is the simplest and most pleasant form of establishing social contact. Thanks to the conversation, we gain perspective, which allows us to go beyond our cultural epistemologies, says Lin Wang.

 Curator: Dominika Drozdowska

Exotic Dreams and Poetic Misunderstandings project-The Maritime Silk Road that combines my experience in making experimental porcelain sculptures, and the vision of communicating past and present Westen seafaring cultures and East/West trade in a contemporary way.

Project description:

1. My Personal Experience and Understanding of ‘Exotic dreams’ and ‘Poetic misunderstanding’

Through my upbringing in China my grandparents read Scandinavian mythology to me. Thus I became besotted with western fairy tales about the sea. As a child in China, I considered Europe to be an exotic world partly due to the political dichotomy that separated the West from the East. It was during that time my ‘exotic dreams’ and ‘poetic misunderstanding’ of the West fermented and grew. I formulated the concept of ‘poetic misunderstanding’ as a result of attempting to explore the theme of ‘imagination’ and the cultural curiosity the West and the East had about each other. Herein, the histories of the West and the East as embodied in the production, export and interpretation of porcelain are treated as complex cultural-cognitive processes intertwined with my own subjective place-to-place experiences. Practically, I wish to elucidate these histories through contemporary art. My project seeks to illuminate and transform the concepts of ‘exotic dreaming’ and ‘poetic misunderstanding’ through metaphoric imageries of sailors’ tattoos of the West, and blue and white paintings on porcelain of the East. The project also depicts the moment when poetic misunderstanding from both West and East cross over each other simultaneously and cultural exchanges occur – often at a subliminal level.

2. World of Metaphors and Reconsideration of History

Imagery of the ocean embodies idealisation of the unknown. People relate to the ocean in various ways. The colour blue, which is alluding to the ocean, is prevailing in both tattoos and Chinese porcelain. Europe encountered China through porcelain. However, elements of ideology and symbolism associated with the East were not easily accessible through the familiar cobalt blue pigments and hand-painted imagery. As the porcelain market grew in Europe from the 16th century onwards, the production and exportation of porcelain facilitated a form of cultural transaction between China and Europe.

By the beginning of the 17th century the export of Chinese porcelainto Europe reached its peak. The Portuguese who had established their base in Macau, were the first to bring Chinese porcelain out of China through India through the Sea Silk Road, parts of East Africa and finally to Lisbon where products were assembled and shipped northwards to the rest of Europe re.The late 17th century was characterised by an increased level of cultural communication on a global scale. On these grounds, the commodification of stories of the Orient in addition to a new range of popular media that romanticised the Far East invoked general interest in exotic items such as Chinese tableware. Thus the Chinese export porcelain as a connection with the exotic offered Europe ‘a bite’ of the exotic world

European importers would bring European made sketches or models of tableware forms over the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope and across South- east Asia to Guangdong harbour and then further on to Jingdezhen, where they requested Chinese artisans to replicate the designs in porcelain and decorate the final products with Chinese patterns. Although Chinese artisans did not have any knowledge of the western table culture that this tableware was a product of, for instance not knowing how a sauceboat functioned, they took up the challenges to create moulds and to paint patterns based upon these models. This cultural exchange based on the cultural appropriation of physical models and selected Chinese patterns took place in such a way that the exported items embodied the Europeans’ interpretation of China’s ‘exoticness’ rather than cultural and social insight at an emic level.

It is from this interchange of cultural fragments I derive the concept of ‘poetic misunderstanding’. In my point of view, the artist actively engagesin the social life of the place he lives in. I kept considering the relations between myself and immediate society and culture, in addition to how an artist should come to terms with these relations. I also thought about how I experienced the differences and similarities of both cultures and how these can be bridged through my art practice. I look forward to discovering new perspectives on related topics that go beyond the horizons of my own cultural epistemology. 

Installation with sound

Material: porcelain

year of making:2017

size:73cm x 45cm

The exclusive characteristic of the sailor´s occupation is physical and emotion instability, in other words, the identity crisis they undergo after meeting different worlds. Their homeland, which once used to be familiar, they might seem to be unacquainted with, after bing absent for a long period.

The installation is titled Porcelain Anchors. It reflects the artist´s longing and the sentiments of the artist have had towards the new places where she came and left just like the sailors’ life.

The installation has been displayed on the staircase landing between each floor of the gallery, the transitional space. An installation of the double anchors and broken porcelain chains were shown with a photograph hanging on the wall. Flowing ocean was projected from two projected on both side of the room. Porcelain anchors lay on the floor with the broken chains. The transit is displayed in these pieces as a metaphor for the absence from place to place. The transition from lost identify and a renewed identity during the adventures of “worlds switching”.

The blue patterns on the artist´s back of the photograph were willow pavilion landscape form typical Chinese exported porcelain and some part were replaced by the west sailors’ tattoos. 

A container of sailors’ archives, the tattoo bone encapsulates memoirs and romances of their world voyages from one harbor to another. It bears secrets that cannot be told, romances that cannot be continued across oceans as they bid last farewell to their harbor lovers.

To arrest the sailors’ memories, the artist tattoos them deeper into the skin and onto the bone and heart.

Time dries those tales and romances written on seawater into salt, and the artist puts it in the bone-shape jar, along with exotic spices collected from remote countries.Salt whispers scattered words from those distant memoirs, every time you put it in your diet. Through this piece of art, the artist wishes to share her own moments of having lived in different worlds, the salt she had tasted and tales she had heard.The porcelain is a paradoxical material that bares fragility but last forever, cheap but dear. It made in China and been shipped to Europe by flowing the Maritime Silk Road.

How time changes based on what is being experienced.The stillness following cataclysmic change, or the sense of permanence inspired by a sailor’s tattoo, both are human constructs that effect our perception of time as it moves steadily forward unaffected.A fountain constructed from porcelain freezes symbols of two human experiences:

The desire for a permanent memory tattooed onto a body that will eventually decay

The stillness and silence that occurs after a life-changing event

They are linked together by flowing wine that circulates between them, the emotional intoxication of being alive. The scent of wine in the air creates an atmosphere that returns the viewer to the present moment.

Photos documented from the opening of Høstutstillingen (Norwegian National Art Exhibition) 2017, Oslo.

Guest performer: Haavard  Kleppe