ChaoChao
About ChaoChao
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My dossier explores the relationships between materiality, memory, cultural traditions, and human experience. As an artist working primarily with ceramics, particularly functional ware, I am interested in how objects develop meanings beyond their physical forms and practical functions. My selection of artistic precedents reflects an ongoing curiosity about how materials, everyday experiences, and cultural practices can be interpreted and transformed through contemporary art.
One of the critical frameworks informing my research is new materialism, particularly Jane Bennett’s discussion of material agency in Vibrant Matter (2010). This perspective has encouraged me to reconsider the relationship between artists and their materials. Rather than seeing materials simply as tools for expressing an artist’s intentions, I am interested in how their physical properties, histories, and transformations actively contribute to the creative process. Artists such as Ana Mendieta and Doris Salcedo have expanded my understanding of how materials can communicate memory, absence, and experiences that are difficult to express directly.
Another recurring theme is the relationship between tradition and contemporary artistic practice. I am particularly interested in how inherited cultural knowledge can be reinterpreted rather than simply preserved or reproduced. Lu Dadong’s experimental approach to Chinese calligraphy demonstrates how traditional practices can remain relevant through contemporary interpretations without losing their original philosophical and cultural foundations. This connects closely to my interest in ceramics, tea culture, calligraphy, and the rituals embedded in everyday life.
My research also considers how meaning emerges through sensory experience and the relationship between objects and their surroundings. James Turrell’s installations, for example, have encouraged me to think about perception, atmosphere, and how the experience of an artwork can extend beyond its physical form. This is particularly relevant to my interest in functional objects, whose meanings continue to develop through handling, use, and interaction over time.
The artists in my dossier represent different communities of practice, including ceramics, sculpture, installation, performance, and traditional craft. My selection was guided less by similarities in medium or appearance than by shared questions about material transformation, cultural continuity, and the relationship between art and everyday life.
Ultimately, this dossier has helped me see my practice as something that exists between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary artistic inquiry. It has encouraged me to question not only how objects are made, but also how they are experienced, interpreted, and transformed through their relationships with people, places, and time.
yohen natural ash glaze, stoneware with wooden base
As a ceramic artist trained in the traditional discipline of pottery, Ken Matsuzaki has a deep respect for craft. Much of his practice is devoted to exploring the boundaries of craftsmanship and expanding the possibilities of vessel-making. Among his works, however, I am particularly drawn to his Toukaiseki Vase series.
In these pieces, Matsuzaki departs from the conventional forming methods of traditional pottery and rejects the pursuit of technical perfection that has long defined the craft. Instead, he embraces a bold, sculptural language that reveals the raw physicality and expressive power of clay. Deep cuts, fractured edges, and rugged surfaces give the impression that the forms have been carved from stone rather than carefully thrown on a wheel.
What fascinates me most is that this apparent spontaneity is never uncontrolled. Every gesture is supported by extraordinary technical mastery. The balance between freedom and discipline allows the work to feel both powerful and deliberate, demonstrating that true craftsmanship is not about achieving flawless surfaces, but about knowing exactly how far a material can be pushed without losing its integrity.
What's really remarkable is that he is putting himself into the cycle of harvesting. Turning the process of his creation into a ritual practice. Through the repetition, he demonstrates the greatness of nature and time. He believes that pollen is the beginning of life, yet it is so small, almost invisible. There's great power embedded within these particles, because they carries infinite possibilities. The contrast between a simple shape and the amount of particles and the complexity behind the material is really charming.
Stoneware, glazes
Lucie Rie’s approach to glaze and material provides a useful reference for my ceramic practice. Like Rie, I see the surface of a vessel as more than decoration. In my work, incense ash is incorporated into the glaze, transforming a residue of ritual into the surface of a new object. This process connects material transformation with ideas of memory, disappearance, and traces of human existence.
Stoneware, glazes
Takaezu also experimented extensively with glaze, allowing colour and texture to develop unpredictably during firing. Some of her closed forms contain small pieces of clay that create subtle sounds when the vessels are moved, making something invisible inside the object perceptible through sound.
Her work explores the relationship between vessel, material, interior space, and presence, which connects closely with my interest in using ceramic objects to hold traces of human experience.
Incense ash on linen, 63 × 98 7/16 in. (160 × 250 cm)
Zhang Huan (b. 1965) is a Chinese contemporary artist known for his performance, sculpture, painting, and installation. Since the mid-2000s, Zhang has extensively used incense ash collected from temples as an artistic material. I particularly love his incense ash painting series. He used ash collected from temples in Shanghai and surrounding provinces and used them as his paint. The paintings are subtle, quite, but rich in tonal values. He believes that incense ashes are not only ash, they contain spirits, a corrective memory, collective creation and collective hope.
I was very happy when I realized that he also looked into the incense ash. My approach is similar to his, and I totally agree with all his observation with incense ash. But instead of using the ash directly, I turned the ash into a glaze and fire them in a kiln. The ash and my vessels will be permanently bounded together.
washi paper, bamboo, and light.
Isamu Noguchi’s Akari series, begun in 1951, transforms the traditional Japanese paper lantern into a contemporary sculptural form. Made from washi paper and bamboo, the works are both functional lamps and sculptures, using light to dissolve the boundaries between object, space, and atmosphere. The washi paper and bamboo structure to become almost invisible when lighted, shifting the viewer’s attention towards light, shadow, and the surrounding space. He believed that this creation is the combination of traditional Japanese craft and the miracle of modern world (electricity).
Like Noguchi’s practice, craft and craftsmanship is also essential to my practice. Coming from an East Asian background, I inevitably grew up with craft. Traditional craftsmanship and East Asian aesthetics surrounding objects have long been among the most important sources of inspiration in my artistic practice. I am willing to embrace and inherit this cultural heritage, while actively incorporating it into my own work. Noguchi’s Akari gives me great encouragement and confidence in this approach. It demonstrates to me the possibility of bringing traditional craft into a global context and allowing it to engage with modern technology. A work can be both traditional and contemporary; these two qualities do not necessarily have to exist in opposition to each other.
James Turrell is an American artist known for his immersive installations that explore the relationship between light, space, and human perception. His installation Perfectly Clear (1991), part of the Ganzfeld series at MASS MoCA, uses expansive fields of coloured light and carefully constructed architectural spaces to obscure the boundaries between walls, surfaces, and depth. As viewers enter the installation, they may lose their usual sense of spatial orientation, experiencing light almost as a tangible material.
Turrell’s practice challenges the assumption that reality is defined only by physical objects. His work demonstrates how something intangible, such as light, can create a powerful sense of physical presence. This resonates with my ceramic practice, which explores incense ash as a material trace of invisible prayers, wishes, and rituals. While Turrell transforms light into an immersive sensory experience, I transform the residue of burned incense into ceramic glaze. Both practices investigate how ephemeral or intangible phenomena can acquire new forms of presence through material or sensory experience.
Chromogenic color print
Ana Mendieta (1948–1985) was a Cuban-American artist known for her work exploring the relationship between the body, nature, ritual, and disappearance. In her Silueta Series (1973–1980), she created body-shaped impressions in natural environments using materials such as earth, flowers, and fire. These temporary forms gradually disappeared through natural processes, while photographs documented their existence. Her work explores how traces can suggest the presence of something that is no longer physically there.
Mendieta’s practice relates closely to my ceramic project, which investigates the material traces left behind by religious rituals. I collect incense ash from a temple in Melbourne and incorporate it into ceramic glaze, transforming the residue of burned incense into a new material form. Like Mendieta’s body impressions, the ash records an action that has already ended. Although the original incense, smoke, and prayers are no longer present, their material residue remains. However, while Mendieta often allows her traces to disappear naturally, my practice attempts to preserve and transform them through ceramic firing. This difference raises a question central to my work: when something disappears, can its material traces continue to carry the memory of its existence?
Lu Dadong
ink, paper
Lu Dadong is a contemporary Chinese calligrapher who explores new possibilities within traditional Chinese calligraphy. His exhibition Wu Xiang Dao Chang (2019) presented approximately 150 works across six groups, combining traditional calligraphic styles with contemporary materials, spatial arrangements, and live performance. One notable work featured the text of the “Xiao Wu Xiang Gong” (Small Formless Skill) from Jin Yong’s martial arts novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, written in large characters on a red wall, with missing strokes incorporated into the overall composition. The work reinterprets traditional calligraphy through a contemporary visual language while maintaining its connection to Chinese cultural references.
What I learn from Lu Dadong’s practice is how to reinterpret inherited cultural traditions in innovative ways without abandoning their original spirit. Rather than simply reproducing traditional forms, he brings personal experimentation and contemporary perspectives to them, allowing tradition to remain relevant and alive. This approach resonates with my ceramic practice. By collecting incense ash from a Chinese temple and incorporating it into ceramic glaze, I bring a material associated with traditional religious rituals into a contemporary artistic context. Rather than merely reproducing traditional incense burners, I transform the residue through ceramic processes while retaining its connection to prayer, ritual, and spiritual belief. Lu Dadong encourages me to see tradition not as something fixed in the past, but as a living source that can evolve through personal interpretation and material experimentation.
rose petals
Doris Salcedo’s A Flor de Piel (2012) is a sculptural work made from thousands of preserved rose petals carefully stitched together to form a shroud-like structure. Created in response to the death of a Colombian nurse who was tortured, the work transforms fragile organic materials into a powerful expression of mourning, memory, and loss.
Salcedo’s practice resonates with my ceramic project, in which I collect incense ash from a Chinese temple and incorporate it into ceramic glaze. Both practices use materials that carry associations with life, ritual, and loss, transforming them into new forms that preserve traces of past events. For Salcedo, rose petals become a material expression of mourning; in my work, incense ash embodies the residue of prayers, wishes, and spiritual rituals. I am particularly interested in how materials can retain meaning even after their original forms and functions have disappeared. While Salcedo preserves the delicate petals through careful stitching, I transform incense ash through the chemical and physical processes of ceramic firing. Her work encourages me to consider how material transformation can make invisible emotions and experiences tangible.
Week 11
Kazuo Yagi's Mr. Samsa's Walk (1954) is an important work in the development of Japanese avant-garde ceramics. Inspired by Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, the sculpture consists of wheel-thrown ceramic components assembled into an abstract, organic structure. By removing the traditional function of the vessel, Yagi challenged the boundaries between pottery and sculpture, demonstrating how established ceramic techniques could be used to create new artistic possibilities.
This work is particularly relevant to my practice because I primarily work with functional ceramics. I value the relationship between objects and their users, especially how meaning develops through everyday use. In contrast, Yagi deliberately abandoned functionality to explore ceramics as an independent sculptural medium. His approach encourages me to question whether functionality should define the boundaries of my own work. I am especially interested in how he retained traditional craftsmanship while rejecting conventional forms. This suggests that experimentation does not necessarily require abandoning traditional techniques, but can emerge from reinterpreting them. His work inspires me to explore more sculptural possibilities within my own ceramic practice while continuing to value the importance of functional objects.
Week 12
OVER TIME, pt.1 (2018) is a participatory art project by the New Zealand art collective Public Share, created to commemorate the history of women's suffrage. The artists invited 16 current and former female members of the New Zealand Parliament to collect soil from their backyards or places of personal significance. The collected soil was then incorporated into 209 ceramic cups, each marked with a date associated with women's voting rights around the world. The cups were later used in a communal tea gathering at the New Zealand Parliament, bringing together personal histories, collective memory, and social interaction.
This project resonates strongly with my own ceramic practice, particularly my interest in the relationship between materials, everyday rituals, and human experiences. I am fascinated by how ordinary soil, collected from different personal environments, can become a material connection between individuals and a larger community. Similarly, I often work with materials that carry traces of previous activities, transforming them into functional ceramic objects.
What I find particularly meaningful is that the artwork does not end when the objects are completed. Instead, the communal tea gathering becomes an essential part of the work, allowing the objects to develop new meanings through use and interaction. This connects closely to my belief that functional ceramics should not be limited to exhibition spaces but should participate in everyday life. Public Share's approach encourages me to consider how the process of collecting materials, making objects, and sharing experiences can become equally important parts of an artistic practice.