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[October 2008]
Feat Of Clay Fires Imagination in Country of The Terracotta Army
A ceramics expert from Derby in England is helping create a new future for clay arts in China – at the home of the country’s 2,200 year-old terracotta army.
Professor Blackie’s trip was made possible through a £2,000 grant from the University of Derby’s Open Studio research centre, aid from the Fu Le International Ceramic Art Museum and his own contributions.
Sebastian Blackie, Professor of Ceramics at the University of Derby, worked with Chinese craftsmen and women – sometimes beginning his day at 4.30am in the searing heat of a factory – to create exciting new exhibits for the Fu Le International Ceramic Art Museum (FLICAM) in Fu Ping, Shaanxi Province, northern China.
FLICAM is a major venue featuring work by ceramics artists from around the world. It is only an hour’s drive from the home of the terracotta army, displayed at Shaanxi Provincial Capital Xian.
The army of 6,000 life-size figures in terracotta clay was discovered by accident by a farmer digging a well 24 years ago. They were guarding the tomb of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. It is now a world tourist attraction and a fictionalised version played a major part in recent Hollywood action movie The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Professor Blackie’s work is now on permanent display in the British Pavilion at the FLICAM site.
One of only 12 UK artists featured, his work includes various ‘ceramic carpets’, simple clay tiles sewn together in a form inspired by ancient Chinese warriors’ plated armour. The different carpets carry messages taken from real Chinese and English tombstones.
Discussions are underway for follow-up works by Professor Blackie and a possible solo exhibition, to be staged in the 2008 Olympic city, Beijing. He has also been asked to advise FLICAM on setting up a postgraduate study ceramics school.
The Derby academic established links with the Chinese crafts venue two years ago and, most recently, spent most of August 2008 there.
Professor Blackie said: “The factory I and the other British artists used had many skilled Chinese ceramics workers. Differences in language and culture did create difficulties, when asking these workers to apply their specialist knowledge to unfamiliar tasks. However, we were treated with a lot of kindness by the Chinese employees and were able to produce large scale work within a very short period, with their assistance.
“It was strange to think that some of the same ceramics production methods used to create the extraordinary terracotta clay army at Xian – which I visited – are still being used today.”
ENDS