The process of mending an object is also a process of self reflection and healing.
A series of surgeries I underwent in 2016 challenged me tremendously physically and emotionally, and resulted in a calling to capture and share my perspective of optimism towards imperfections in the form of broken and mended porcelain objects.
My solo exhibition in 2019 presented the linkage between mending myself and mending an object. In preparing for the show, through the repetitive creating, spontaneous breaking, and the lengthy mending processes, I was able to dig out wounds, re-experience the pain and start the healing process.
Initially the exploration of glass art and porcelain mending as creative media started purely as my personal interests, yet the longer I work with these media the more I realize how they may represent the antagonistic and complementary influences of Eastern and Western cultures within me.
My journey started learning glass art in Murano, Venice from Maestro Lucio Bubacco; it continued with an apprenticeship with Master Wang Lao Xie (王老邪) in the ancient Chinese porcelain mending techniques called Ju China (鋦瓷 juci). Master Wang, himself a intangible cultural heritage (非物質文化遺產代表性傳承人), not only taught me about techniques, but also opened my perspectives on Chinese culture which I was not aware of during my colonial upbringing in Hong Kong.
I was so inspired by that aspect of Chinese culture that I began my research into different porcelain making and mending crafts and the aesthetics choices involved across different cultures. Little did I know at the beginning that my artistic direction was closely connected to my early interest in psychology and the cultural confusion I experienced during my adolescence.
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