Taoxichuan used to be a ceramic factory – many places back then held up to 10,000 employees that were paid fairly well. Post hay-day it was an abandoned factory, much like some of the mill towns that we know of in New England. The government decided to partner with a developer and revitalize it in order to stimulate the creative sector by exploiting the deep roots of ceramics (and in my opinion stimulate the economy for tourism). The footprint is huge – as big as Greenwich High School including the sports fields and parking lot if that comparison means anything to you. Just huge. The specific studio I am in deals with international guest artists and provides them with housing, a studio, and help with making relationships with needed resources. Food is at an employee cafeteria – nothing worth noting about that…

Ok, as for my machine – you know, the one that I make ALL my work on and the reason I actually got this residency, my ‘big award’ in 2018, and membership into the International Academy of Ceramics – it won’t work. Yup, I’ve been soaking that information in for the last 24 hours. It was the first thing I took out of my suitcase and set up. The machine technically ‘works’, but something with connecting to the software is really wonky. I’ve tried calling 2 IT people in the US and some tech people here and we can’t figure it out – I’ve even tried using a different computer; maybe it’s just China? It royally sucks, and it means I have to quick very quickly on my feet for a Plan B. Yikes.

I’ve decided to sketch every day to get the creative juices flowing – I’m beginning to figure out that the best use of my time here is to utilize the resources that I normally wouldn’t have access to. You might be thinking, “no shit, Sherlock”, but again, I was brought here specifically to teach and explore more CNC work. I even bought a smaller CNC just to fit in my suitcase. Anyways, I digress. I’m thinking of making work with themes involving labor, exploitation, export of goods, and if there is actually any difference between a porcelain factory worker and an iphone factory worker; bet you didn’t know that iphone batteries have cobalt in them ? the same material that I use to make my blue decoration with. Getting a fuzzy picture? I just need to figure out how to marry both technique and concept – I think I’m missing a big narrative component. Something with telling the factory worker’s story; just not there yet. It’s day 1, give me a break!

I plan to tour around Jingdezhen soon – I’ll request to see specific cobalt painting factories next week. Right now I’m making making making. The porcelain here is difficult to work with – it’s what I would call ‘slimy’ – and reminds me of the porcelain I used in Taiwan (imported from Japan). It’s very very very white. It’s a high-fire clay, which I don’t use at home, but I figure I should use resource that I wouldn’t normally have. Also, glaze is abundant with tons of samples, but you have to buy it in 16oz bottles at various glaze stores. I’ll be in touch when I have more info, pictures, and a plan.

I’ve ventured out of the large compound of Taoxichuan and am seeing the city of Jingdezhen. It’s an industrious city and what is immediately noticeable is the size of the shops – very tiny and in vast rows (the size of a one-car garage). Shops vary from eateries, ceramic materials, mechanics, etc. Grocery shops are oddly a tiny bit harder to find, but maybe it’s just my location. There’s a large mall with very nice food, so I definitely would call it a city (before coming I wasn’t sure if it was a small town or not).

What’s been interesting, albeit frustrating, is that many important people come to Taoxichuan to visit and see how ceramics is being promoted for the sake of the government – this is a bit of a nuisance in the fact that the staff here must drop everything and align themselves to accommodate tours, meetings, etc. meaning that at spontaneous moments I lose my ability to communicate or follow a schedule – two kiln firings have already been cancelled because of this. Tangent to this, the Vice President of China is coming to tour the facility tomorrow. I’m told that this is a bit of a quality check to make sure that government money is spent wisely. Because of this I CANNOT LEAVE MY ROOM FOR 12 HOURS. There will be tight security and it was decided that it would be easier if everyone stayed in the dorms – we were notified about six hours in advance to prep (aka getting breakfast and lunch for the next day). I guess it’ll be laundry day for me. The absolutely fucked up part of all of this is that the staff at the studio must ACT LIKE THEY ARE TOURISTS during the VP’s visit. It’s a complete charade. WTF?! This is next level crazy reverse-propaganda shit right here.

Now that I got that out of the way I can tell you about the “conditions” here for local workers. Honestly, I was expecting to not be surprised by low quality/hazardous conditions for people working in ceramics, however I must say that it isn’t as dire as I had in my head. Some places, like Sculpture Factory, have odd and perhaps dingy facilities, but the places I saw were mom-and-pop shops that got to arrange their studios the way they wanted to as well as their schedules. I toured around with Shoji Satake (ceramics professor at West Virginia Univeristy) who has been going to this part of China for over 10 years. He explained that the Sculpture Factory was an official government run factory that ceased to have funding in the 90’s and what I was seeing (odd shaped studios, some domestic looking and some garage-looking) was actually the original factory workers that stayed on the grounds after the shut-down and tried to make it on their own as independent shops. It has been the only space to do this (minus the new Taoxichuan place that I’m at now). Sculpture Factory is a bit run down, but I really admire the grittiness and resilience of its workers.

Opposite of the independent shops in Sculpture Factory (I would call it more like Sculpture Town) I saw the Bottle Factory – a 20-year-old factory still making THOUSANDS of ceramic objects from bottles to trinkets. My first surprise was how few people worked there – they are a fully operational factory and I only saw 50-75 people there (I was expecting at least triple that considering how many pieces were there). There were clean, zoned off sections for each process of casting: moldmaking, slipcasting, joining, cleaning, glazing, luster firing. My second surprise was that everyone making the work was efficient, but by no means making with speed or working against the clock. The one negative that I would have to mention is that there seemed to be a lot of fumes in some sections (particularly with applying gold) that I felt like didn’t have enough ventilation and the people working didn’t have masks; I heard that they mix the material with turpentine.So, with a bit of happiness I can say that I have an overall good feeling about the production of ceramics in China. The questionable part is pay/salary – everything is so cheap to produce here, but so is the food as well as the rent….

OK, OK, I bet you’re dying to hear about my tooth escapade after seeing that instagram post. As you probably know I had a root canal about a week or so before I came to China. Everything was fine and a dental technician told me that I actually didn’t need a crown because the endodontist did such a good job with the filling and didn’t crack the tooth – I confirmed this with a technician that made crowns and he thought it was a sound enough assessment (although full disclosure I didn’t go to my regular dentist after the endodontist visit). Anyway – four days into my time in china I notice that my tooth feels a bit funny, like it had more of a dip to it when I touched it with my tongue. When I looked in the mirror I was horrified to see that the filling was eroding. I panicked and asked someone in the studio to get me to a dentist – they said they knew a place close by, but when we went there was a parked car where a shop should have been (the sign above the car said ‘dentist’ in Chinese). My friend called the phone number on the sign and he said that people would “pick us up because they moved” – it was a bit weird but I really needed my tooth to be fixed so I just followed along. Eventually a car pulled up and there was a man driving, nice cashmere shirt, and a woman in the passenger seat (red lipstick, looked nice). We got into the car and drove for about ten minutes – the woman told us that the government was destroying the building that the office used to be in and they were forced to move. Midway during our drive they said that they needed to ‘pick up another patient’…..I really wasn’t sure if this is standard practice, but we went with it and got the other person (an older gentleman on a scooter who tailgated the car the rest of the way). When we got out I noticed that the woman was well dressed, with a shorter skirt and kneehigh boots; she led us into a courtyard where she then put on a labcoat – she was the dentist! In the courtyard was a structure that was like a glass shed with medical furniture in it; the office. The rest of the courtyard had plants and a line of laundry. The dentist looked at my tooth and messed around a bit until finally translating that the endodontist used a very soft material for my filling and she wanted to take it out to put a harder material in. I agreed and she went to town – no Novocain and I’m not 100% sure the tools were sterilized, but she did the job and put a very hard top shell on. Apparently she’s been in practice for over 20 years. The driver took us back to the studio.

As for my own work I’ve sent a 3d model to a lab to precision-cut a plaster model so I can make a mold of it. Despite my efforts to try to get a Sculpture Factory worker to do it (because I knew they had such machines and it would be cheaper) I was told to do it within Taoxichuan at a design studio. I was very surprised to go into their design center – I felt like I was walking into a Manhattan design studio as there were hipster people clicking away at their computers – click click click, so fast it sounded like someone on stilettos trying to catch a train. They had to remake my model, which I was skeptical about, but I watched over someone’s shoulder and can definitely say they’re the real deal – they were using 3d modeling commands I haven’t seen before with such speed. I should be getting the model back tomorrow (hopefully the Vice President of China won’t be imposing on this). Should have pictures by next week. Hope everything is good in the US. I’m a bit happy not to be in the know about American politics.

So as a continuation from the last adventure of China’s VP coming to town….Security was tight and we were told to stay tight in our apartments. Apparently I didn’t receive a text from the night before that it would be ok to be only in the studio for the morning – once I read it I went in and there were a lot of confused guards who tried not to let me in and there were a few rounds of google translate to get me inside the studio. At least I didn’t have to go through a TSA-like security check like everyone else earlier in the morning. Later that morning the CEO of Taoxichuan came in with the director of my studio asking if I could stand outside with my colleagues and talk momentarily with the VP about being here in China and coming from a foreign land – aka be a show pony. I’m pretty used to this from giving tours at Clay Art Center, although I was a bit resistant because of my stance on China’s domestic affairs. I waited over an hour in the market just waiting…..The VP took his time strolling through Taoxichuan; it really reminded me of a celebrity that had to begrudgingly do a charity event. When he got to me the CEO mumbled something in his ear and he asked, “where are you from?” and shook my hand – I said, “New York” to which he responded, “Oh – England!”. There were DOZENS of TV cameras swarming him and about 50 other people with cell phones taking pictures and recording the conversation – my face must have been priceless when I heard his response. Still in the midst of trying to get footage of it. I nervously corrected him and he moved on - all of 45 seconds.

I met an architect last week that has switched careers and has started a fablab/makerspace. His studio is geared up with a large lasercutter, resin-based 3d printer, multiple high-end computers, and other gadgets. He runs small workshops (probably not more than 8 people) and does some freelance object-making work for the people of Jingdezhen. I casually told him about my broken CNC machine at a reception and he was adamant that he try to fix it; at this point I was utterly sure that it wouldn’t work on a Chinese computer, but brought it over anyways because I wanted to see his studio. Miraculously it worked on his Mac. I think there were several problems including network connection and operating system. So the new plan is to bring work over to his studio (about a 5-10 min drive from where I am) and CNC paint there. Crossing my fingers that there are no more large bumps in the road.

The staff here are starting to formulate a plan for my exhibition – a one week show either at the museum or in their own gallery. I prefer the museum because the lighting is softer and the space has a little more breathing room. I originally told them that I wanted hundreds of iPhone tiles for the show, but in light of the CNC not working and the fact that they said it would be hard to produce tiles in my specification I’ve dialed it back to 50 handmade tiles, 25 trays, 10 plates, and some odds/ends to fill the room. Because I’m primarily using the iPhone as a symbol I’ve decided to title the show “Hello”, but in the Chinese context where they use a word specifically when picking up the phone (pronounced ‘wei’). I think it’s quite tongue-in-cheek and an easy concept to grasp. In the beginning I was thinking of lofty titles that had complicated and esoteric connections – I’m stripping that away to make it as clear as possible. My work seems to get a better response when it is minimal and clear.

Since my CNC only works at another studio I have to brainstorm another workshop idea. It’s difficult because we want the workshop to fill with a popular theme, but also have deep educational value. I know that I want to focus on drawing and printmaking, because that is what I’m the most versed in – I’ve proposed a 5-day workshop, where each day I teach a new technique and alongside it a new component of design. Much like my Sunday night class at Clay Art Center I will be showing mostly transfer techniques as well as a group plate-making project. From what I’ve seen, the education system around ceramics is very technical and I want to break through the traditional line of thinking by showing more experimental and thought-provoking exercises to stimulate originality and personal autonomy.

While I’m not a Thanksgiving-type person (had to work at the bakery every holiday season for the past 20 years) I do like family-style meals in the studio, especially since the food at the canteen is completely sub-par. I was going to do a common menu, but then one person (from the UK) said that he had Thanksgiving once and the main dish was stuffed manicotti shells and begged me to make it. Must have been a vegetarian Thanksgiving for that to be a main dish… I’ve decided to make it because I have a very tasty vegan ricotta recipe from my mother-in-law using tofu and cashews, which are incredibly easy to get here. I’ll be asking for this to be potluck-style since there’s 12-15 people around the studio. Hope all goes well.

In other news the weather has definitely gotten colder and the leaves on trees are starting to whither and fall. It seemed to change seasons overnight.

No pictures this time – the email takes forever to send out if I include images. Perhaps I’ll post more on instagram.

The average temperature to fire here is around 1300c (2372f). I usually fire to 2220f so it’s a difference both in temperature and atmosphere – the clay is so white here and the glaze is crystal clear. I’ve finally learned how to properly spray glaze in a spray booth – took 10 years! There is a kilnmaster here that fires all the kilns – he’s a tetris master and can get a lot of work into a kiln.

I went to a ceramics museum yesterday with a large collection of historic pottery and sculpture. It was in chronological order and was informative to the different dynasties and the aesthetics of the time. There was less blue-and-white ware than I thought and more full-color paintings on porcelain. Lots of historic propaganda on clay during the cultural revolution and lots of Mao looking fierce…

There is a Finnish designer that just came to complete a large dinnerware project at the studio. I’m learning some details about industry that wasn’t told to me in school (mostly because my professors didn’t have experience producing ceramics at a large scale). From ergonomics to keeping cups round – it’s fascinating and I’m absorbing it like a sponge.

The town I’m in is developing very fast – buildings are being demolished and new ones going up all around. They don’t stop and work 24hrs a day. One building next to us is being torn down and we think they shut down the water over there, which has effected our own water. We haven’t been able to do laundry or shower for two days. Not sure what the solution is going to be.

I miss NY because of the convenience getting around, the amazing diversity of food, the interest in provocative art, and you guys of course! While I’m not homesick, yet, living in an apartment with no art on the walls is somewhat getting to me.

My lecture went through three different rehearsals to nail down the translation and delivery. I also think they were screening the presentation to make sure nothing lewd was said – I did manage to get my racy boys in sexy poses into the presentation without much problem. During my lecture I turned to the screen and realized how gay my work actually is; when I talk in the US I don’t really think about homosexuality as a debatable subject matter and just assume everyone is on the same page as me. Everything went smoothly. I did get a question about why I use blue in my work and it got very awkward for me because there are several answers – I gave the most straight forward answer (which is largely technical) and they didn’t seem to like it and there were more follow-up questions to that so I had to give my nuanced answer, but still stayed away from the ‘cultural’ answer as I didn’t talk about my ethnicity in my talk and didn’t want to open that can of worms.

Most of the work for my exhibition is complete, although scattered around the studio. I have a few pieces to pick up that were lustered and have a small firing tomorrow. The last big firing was a bit of a disappointment because the shelf that my work had been on was a cool spot in the kiln and underfired – it’s a bit of a risk to refire it so I’m weighing my choices. I’m starting to edit the work down and group things together. The gallery originally gave me half the space (there are two rooms) because my work is so small and I couldn’t fill all the space, but I have convinced them to let me curate a secondary show in the other room of American artists that have been to the residency (about 10) – I am posing a question of if there is an American aesthetic, even if the resources used for production are pulled from Asia. They liked the idea so this upcoming week I will be digging through their archives.

I’ve learned a technique of overglazing. It predates China painting where low-melting pigments are applied generously with a brush to get a watercolor effect. I discovered it in my pursuit to get a colored edge over premade tiles. The color choices are limited, but the samples I saw were very beautiful and soft. I chose a red-brown color that is called “ancient purple”. We’ll see how it comes out – fingers crossed. From this technique I’ve started to wonder what ideas I will take back home with me – I’m definitely going to be working with the plate mold I made, but other than that it’s still a bit of a mystery. I have to digest what I’ve created here for a bit. I like many of the techniques, but realistically I think I should focus on what makes sense to bring home and apply in my studio practice. I do feel like this is a shotgun experience in a MFA program, which I never had; in grad school I only had a desk and computer to work on. I have the freedom to explore, but also have goals to reach.

NY is definitely calling me. I’m really beginning to miss my regular lifestyle. The coffee in the morning (always with a splash of almond milk), popping over to the grocery store down the hill, the evenings cooking in my kitchen – the dumb regular stuff. I already mentioned how the food isn’t amazing here. There have been a couple of occasions where I’ve eaten out and have liked the dishes, but still nothing has wow’ed me. I also miss the ease of getting the news. I’m not a news junkie, but I do stay informed and it’s harder here to get global reports.

Lastly – I’m happy to let you know that I’ve been asked to be a speaker at the International Academy of Ceramics for Finland in 2020. This was a major shock to me as I’m a new member and there are just a handful of speaker slots, but one of the organizers is an industrial designer in ceramics and liked my perspective of combining the digital and handmade. I’ll be reciting my talk over and over for the next six months to nail it down.

Hope it isn’t too cold in the US… The weather is really unpredictable here; one day it’ll feel like winter and the next day summer. Everyone is probably gearing up for the holidays, right? Nothing of that sort on my end. I hear there’s going to be a Xmas party, but not sure what that’ll entail.

After a cumbersome back-and-forth with the Exhibitions Manager I finally set my show date. There were many problems with the first date, which would have opened on the 27th – the biggest issue was that I'm leaving on Jan 1 and I'm taking the unsold work home with me. I had to get the director involved.... Didn't feel good, but a lack of staff experience and my tight deadlines gave me no other choice than to go to the top. Most of the other residents leave around the 20th, so I was disappointed that they originally set a date after everyone leaves – it really made no sense to even have a reception because it is the off-season for tourists and really only the residents and close friends would come.

Next week is my Bday and I'm not sure how I'm going to celebrate yet. There was talk of a party, but I think everyone is scrambling to get final firings done that a gathering would be a longshot if I don't bring the idea up again. Not sure how I want to play that because I too want to tie up loose ends and maybe a party would be distracting....Plus my opening is two days after so maybe I can just lump it into that.

My workshop is also next week. I've been told that people are interested more about my lecture than the 'doing', so I have to focus on creating that content this weekend in addition to the actual hands-on component. I've had long conversations with staff about the development of Jingdezhen and the mindset of the creative community. It seems like ceramic makers are lacking a sense of artistic expression and treat their work more like a business-oriented product – it also all looks the same as copying is fairly normal. The school system also seems to only teach technique and not concept or critical thinking; I want my workshop to expand the way of thinking and develop a sense of individual thought. The longer I stay here the more I want to change the system – I've thought a bit about my own opinions on the pedagogy here and challenged my biases, but have concluded that free thought and expression brings a more fulfilling experience when making art. I'm not sure how I can make a larger impact, but perhaps this workshop will create a small ripple effect.

I'm not sure if I would come back to China for a residency like this. It's had ups and downs and I'm definitely missing a Western lifestyle. My education and professional training have also made me aware of what effective administrative procedures look like and I can't say that I've seen good examples of it here. I'd want to help change this, but at the end of the day it might just be a cultural rift with my expectations and what is possible in this country. I would consider doing a design project here because of the factories, but nothing really beyond that.

My workshop was billed as 5 days of 5 techniques where I show different ways of drawing and printing onto clay – I was then going to give 10 minute lectures each day about marketing in the US and the differences between wholesale and retail. Well it turns out that the students that took my class ONLY wanted to learn about business and wanted very little to do with actual making in clay, so I was notified after the second day that I had to change the whole curriculum to accommodate their desire to learn about business. I worked every night after dinner (always at 6pm, like clockwork) until midnight to make hour-long presentations and rehearse them with the translator and strategize ways to engage the students in business practices. Ultimately the students were satisfied and I gave personal critiques on their work and resume’s, but it took a lot out of me. If I were to do this all over again I would only do a series of lectures or only focus on making, not a combination.

During this week I was also preparing for my exhibition. All the work was made two weeks prior so it was not complicated to put it up. There were some odd interactions with the graphic designer because of language but also creative perspective – she was really into my work and concept and started to put her own spin on things, which I feel changed the actual show (for example my exhibition title was altered…..). For the interest of time and energy I haven’t really complained about this because I’m satisfied with the layout of my work and how it looks overall. Working in a place with a different language has taught me to pick my battles more carefully. I’ve talked it over with several people and I’ve decided to donate a piece called SWIPE to the Taoxichuan permanent collection (I have to donate 30% of my exhibition, but had negotiations with which pieces) – originally it was supposed to be 6 different sets of tiles, but I’ve decided to transform it into a larger unit. The base board for SWIPE will be redone in a better material so it can look more professional if it ever displays in a group show (which is the general desire for the studio).

The internet has been down for me (but not others), which has made it very difficult to keep up with business in the US. I’m prepping for other shows and also trying to stay active online, so I’m thankful that I can now send this. I.Did.Not.Hear.About.Trump.Until.Just.Now – I’m pissed that I’m getting the news 2-3 days late. This was the same about Bloomberg (I left the day before he announced his campaign). I’m very interested in using this as more fuel and research for my own artwork because I am an internet advocate and find it fascinating what news actually travels across the world and what doesn’t; it changes your outlook on other cultures.

On the night of Christmas Eve I get a phone call while going to a potluck asking if I would do an interview with the Mayor of Jingdezhen to talk about my experiences in the city as a foreigner; it was to be scheduled from 6-8pm. The week prior I had coordinated a potluck of my own for the rest of the residents at the studio for Christmas as there hasn't been any holiday spirit floating around and I felt like people were getting a little homesick for the West, however I didn't buy my ingredients yet and thought that meeting the mayor would be a good opportunity so we cancelled the potluck, but was told we could move the dinner to later in the night and we'd just buy some simple food.

On Christmas day we get to about 5pmwhere I'm notified that a film crew would be there as we talk to the mayor as it was a good photo opportunity. This wasn't a huge surprise to me as these last two months have had multiple instances where international residents are show-ponied around to the media; but the kicker was that we were going to be filmed making dumplings..... Foreigners.making.dumplings. We started to voice our worries (i.e. complain) that this sounded like we were monkeys being forced to do tricks, but by the time we realized what was going on we were already in the car.

We were told that another foreign artist was going to be there and it turned out to be a French woman that has been in China for a long time making a living as a contemporary ceramic artist. The whole setup was weird as we were at a restaurant and there was a table set up for dumpling-making and the upstairs space was for filming us eating and chatting with each-other. We were told to prepare our CV's and portfolios ready beforehand so the leaders would get a better understanding of where we come from, but I didn't see a projector or any place to set up. During dinner everyone mostly talked in Chinese, including the French artist, and then they started to discuss the word Jing-Piao, which is a foreigner that comes to Jingdezhen. Most foreigners that I have met have a distaste for this word because it has the connotation of an immigrant and I do not believe it takes global politics of mass-migration or discrimination into account. Me and the other resident were resistant to the general acceptance of this and the French artist was really trying to change our minds. All this time passed and I finally realized that the mayor wasn't in the room and everyone eating there was just the film crew.

After dinner I brought out some of my artwork to show and the film crew shot a few scenes of us discussing it, but I quickly realized that they did not care about what I was saying and only focused on our hand movements over the artwork and people smiling when seeing it. It seemed all so fake. When it came time for making dumplings I refused to take part because all the restaurant staff whipped out their phones and only the foreigners were allowed at the table. I was told before dinner that everyone was going to make dumplings – as in those with Asian faces as well. I felt very much like an animal trapped in a zoo.

We were so pissed when we left. It wasn't until the day after that someone told us that all along this was for a documentary for the French artist as a foreigner that set her roots in China. No mayor in the picture at all. We were tricked into an advertisement. I guess that's what I get for leaving my family for the first time in my whole life during Christmas.