In 2019 I was invited to do a residency in Dehua and to create a new body of work for an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
The work has roots in the 18th century, beginning with a fascination of the origins of European experiments with porcelain, so this was an exciting opportunity to explore using porcelain from a different perspective.
While doing research at the V&A Museum, I found a small gourd-shaped spice dish. Made in 1730, the piece showed how European alchemists tried to find the formula to make the fine white porcelain from the East. Coincidently the gourd is a mascot of Dehua. During my residency in Dohua, a series called “The Secret Life of a Pea: Post Apocalyptic Regeneration,” was made, using porcelain both from Dehua and from England, which references the early microscopic photographs of the natural world by Karl Blossfeldt. This body of work came from anxiety about the effects of climate change on the planet.
The residency had a profound effect on the work. The Conversation Continues was made after the exhibition as a celebration of East meets West, and the hybrid nature of east region’s practices. The delicate pea pods are contrasted by the organic forms which are a continued thread in my work.