Chun Liao’s vessels are a poetic metaphor of the passing of time. She writes ‘Porcelain is like white paper, with the silver and gold imprints marking the imperfections, writing a life in the pieces I make’.
In the installation For You, brightly coloured miniature bowls are juxtaposed against each other, often with minuscule traces of gold or silver fixed upon their surface. The porcelain is thrown and the edges and body manipulated to retain a sense of spontaneity and life. The assortment of colours, sizes, splashes and markings lend her vibrant installation a lively energy and although the individual parts are so different, they can be perfectly understood as a complete whole.
For You will tell different stories in each of its three homes: at MIMA it will sit within the collection of British Ceramic Art, demonstrating the enduring interest in Far Eastern influences in the British studio ceramic movement as well as contemporary uses of porcelain and strategies of accumulations and the grouping of pots. At Aberdeen and Cheltenham it will explore influences of Orientalism through collections of decorative arts and the Arts and Crafts movement.
