Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Chinese, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Creative viewers, welcome to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms on Supreme Master Television. Clay is a common substance which is found in all parts of the world. It is mainly composed of fine-grained minerals and comes in a range of colors. Clay is an amazing substance which has been known to be used as an ancient writing medium, water and air purifier, in making ceramic items and musical instruments, in medicinal and agricultural applications, and applied in manufacturing processes.

Its distinctive property of plasticity, which depends on its water content, enables clay to be formed into different shapes for a variety of uses. The art of pottery makes use of clay to beautify the world. As one of the oldest art forms and human technologies, pottery is still widely popular today. The basic tools are the hands and potter’s wheel. From there, various methods have been created to shape the clay and different glazes are applied. Pottery can be either purely decorative or made into useful items.

Today we present an introduction to the delicate art and traditional culture of Chinese pottery with Wong Guo Zhen, a renowned Formosan (Taiwanese) ceramic artist. His creations have been exhibited in prestigious museums such as the National Museum of History in Taipei, National Museum of China in Beijing, Taipei Fine Arts Museum and many others. Mr. Wong’s talent has been recognized with numerous accolades throughout the years.

Mr. Wong, can you please share with us the philosophy behind your artistic creation?

Basically, my artistic creation is to reveal the most primitive and natural aspect of ceramics. As you know, during Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese traditional ceramics had a great variety of colorful glazes. There are two primary categories of ceramics, pottery and porcelain. Pottery wares have a simple and unpretentious appearance. So my art works are mainly made with pottery. Most of my pottery wares have cracked lines on the surface, like those on a turtle’s shell. This is to show my respect for Mother Nature.

What’s the difference between the type of clay you use and ordinary clay?

All types of soil on the surface of the Earth can be used to make pottery. But they have to meet certain conditions. First of all, it should have plasticity. Without plasticity, the clay can’t be formed into shapes, not to mention the following processes of drying, glazing, and glaze firing. I had tried to use a kind of sticky clay. However, the more you work on this kind of clay, the softer it becomes. That makes it hard to take shape when doing wheel throwing. Despite its stickiness, the clay can’t take shape.

When you squeeze the clay, water would ooze out. The more you work with the clay, the softer it becomes. However, when we form clay wares on the wheel, we need to use water to wet our hands. If the clay is already soft without adding more water, it will completely break down when we add water. So the first condition is plasticity. Second, the clay must be pure without containing too many other elements, such as sand, stones or decayed wood pieces. If the clay contains too many of these elements, it won’t be able to hold together when you try to mold it into a shape and the texture will not be very smooth either.

So it can’t take shape when you try to mold it. It will break down. The third condition is also very important. It must be able to endure high temperatures. To fire pottery, the temperature ranges from 1,230° Celsius to 1,240° Celsius; and the temperature can be as high as 1,280° Celsius. So if the clay can’t endure 1,230 degrees Celsius, it will melt down like mercury after being fired in the kiln, even though it did take shape before you fired it.

Clay may not always be available in its most ideal form for making pottery. Skilled artisans are able to test and prepare the clay for their intended purposes.

Therefore, in order to prepare the clay, we need to filter the impure elements out of it. Then we need to pinch and poke at the clay to see if it has enough plasticity. If not, we can mix it with other types of clay. We may have to mix two to three different types of clay together to make it ready to be molded into a piece of pottery. Before we fire any pottery in the kiln, we never know whether or not a certain type of clay can endure high temperatures.

Once an artist molds the clay, the material takes shape and can be heated up, whereupon a beautiful, new creation emerges from the kiln. A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be back with more on the art of traditional Chinese pottery. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Today on our show, we are introducing the art of ancient Chinese pottery with ceramic artist Wong Guo Zhen. Bisque pottery refers to wares that have only been fired in the kiln once and are not glazed; thus natural fissures may appear that look similar to cracks in the earth. Mr. Wong explains the detailed process of creating works using this ancient form of pottery making.

There are three steps involved: First, I take a piece of traditional clay, which is quite sticky. It’s very sticky and it can be bent without splitting. This is the clay that I mixed. It’s less sticky. This clay breaks easily when you bend it. So basically, we have to change the structure of the clay so that it’s less sticky, but is looser and harder. This is the first step. Second, when I try to mold the clay into a shape, I will add a layer of the make-up soil. The make-up soil is a kind of dry soil powder that has been fired. When I add it to the wet surface of the clay body, it will be a little dry on the outside, in contrast to the wet interior.

The third step is the most important one. When you try to do wheel throwing, you should use only one hand, use your left hand to work from the inside to press out the curves and crack lines of your product. If we use the right hand to support on the outside, the crack lines outside will not look natural. So you have to know the quality and moisture of the clay, and know how much force to use to do wheel throwing and even how to control your breathing while doing it. Your breathing and your force, have to attain an ultimate harmony. Only then can you make a perfect piece with “Earth’s Cracks.”

As one living on our shared planet, Mr. Wong is alarmed about the state of our Earth and expresses his environmental concerns through his art.

Why is this piece entitled “Drought?”

Around 1984 or 1985, people became aware of the greenhouse effect caused by the depletion of our natural resources. We didn’t protect the forests and we didn’t try to save energy and cut carbon emissions. Many people may still remember clearly that during that period of time, there were water shortages in many places in the world. There was a picture of a child standing on a barren land, which was the bottom of an arid lake or reservoir.

The child was staring at the sky praying to Heaven for a little rain so that people could have water to drink and the drought would end. Those images were strongly impressed on my mind. I was wondering if I could incorporate people’s concerns about environmental protection into my pottery work. This piece is called “Drought,” so when you see this piece of art work, you will know that during a drought, the surface of our Earth, and even our skin becomes like this.

It’s very terrifying. With water shortage, we can’t have a normal and convenient life in any aspect. So after I created this piece, “Drought,” I hope that when people, as global citizens, have the chance to see this piece, they will not just pay attention to the difficult techniques I applied to this piece, but also contemplate on the importance of co-existence with the Earth and the seriousness of this issue.

In touch with nature and his spirituality, Mr. Wong endeavors to convey his noble aspirations in his artistic creations.

This piece is entitled “Seeking the Truth.” This depicts that during the course of our life, when we follow an enlightened Master or a teacher, when we seek profound wisdom, we have to have a very humble and respectful attitude, just like what this piece stands for. To create such a piece, you need to have a thorough understanding of the stickiness and structure of the clay, so that in a split second you can change the clay from the shape of a bottle to the shape of a Truth seeker.

How is this color glaze formed on the surface?

This is not color glaze, but ash glaze. It was done in the wood firing kiln. In the firing process, wood ashes were produced. After a while, the ashes accumulate to a certain amount, it forms a layer of natural coating on the surface of the clay body. Through high temperature the wood ashes would melt and create a layer of natural ash coating on the pottery. So this is a kind of natural glaze which is different from the chemical glaze.

Why is this pair of works entitled, “Opening and Closing”?

Through practicing, I learned some of the essence of Tai Chi. “Opening and Closing” refers to stillness in movement, and movement in stillness so this work consists of two pieces.

How do we integrate the art of pottery into life?

Actually, pottery can be very easily cooperated in our life. For example, the Chinese like to drink tea, so we can design tea cups for savoring the fragrant High Mountain Tea of Formosa (Taiwan). Here, I pour the freshly brewed tea into this pottery cup. Please enjoy, sister!

Thank you.

With this kind of tea cup, the tea tastes especially sweet.

From tea cups to vases to containers, throughout history, pottery works have been integrated into our lives as useful, decorative artistic creations. We thank Mr. Wong for sharing his expertise and elegant works illustrating the beauty of traditional Chinese pottery. May you continue on your path of crafting beautiful and meaningful artworks to share with the world.

For more information on Mr. Wong’s art creations, please contact: Wong Guo Zhen

OR Email: Kind viewers, thank you for your presence today for A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, coming up after Noteworthy News. May all lives be enriched through the beauty of the arts.

Kind viewers, thank you for your presence today for A Journey through Aesthetic Realms. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, coming up after Noteworthy News. May all lives be enriched through the beauty of the arts.

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