Bai

BAI The New Language of Porcelain in China

FOREWORD Felicity Aylieff, Head of Programme, Ceramics & Glass, Royal College of Art, 2018

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For Bai Ming, creation comes through an intricate mix of emotions that can be complex, confusing, joyous, conflicting, and passionate. In this monograph he sets out to understand his search for the meaning of his art, what drives him to create and from where he draws inspiration. His writing is insightful, often poetic and sometimes wistful. He tells us about his memories, small details of his life, his philosophy, influences, and the rituals and habits that inform him, drawing us gently into his world of words, porcelain and painting. This book is a celebration of his creative journey.

Growing up in Southern China on the banks of Poyang Lake, he was surrounded by the abundance of nature in all its forms. He learnt about China’s traditional philosophy and art and was brought up to respect his environment, the trees, the mountains, rocks, and water. It is this vitality and expression, which he witnessed as belonging to the natural world, that he has transferred so acutely into his own art. However, for him, of greater philosophical influence is the quintessential aesthetics of Chinese landscape art, with its concentrated view of an imagined landscape, its respect for quietness and timeless beauty imbued with energy and vigour. Such qualities he recognises in the porcelain of the Song Dynasty and searches to achieve for himself.

Growth, tradition, nature, and art are subtly connected in his mind. Through art he recognises the power of nature, its incredibility and amazingness, and it is through this recognition that he has discovered himself. Mother Nature has taught him a gentle compassion, an expression that can be seen in both his paintings and his porcelain.

Bai Ming introduces us to his thinking, his deliberations and contemplations through a series of themes or headings that explore the different enquires in his art. He begins by discussing clay, a material as old as the Earth. He looks at how it can take on different states, be moulded, manipulated, squeezed, stretched, and formed as it has been throughout millennia. He sees clay as having limitless expression, he talks of how it can bring life and meaning to objects. As a material, it bonds us with nature and is essential to humankind.

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COMPENDIUM SERIES Blue and White Ceramic Underglaze Red Green

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┞绻寏Ⲙ▇剱寊嵤闀 Perpetual Motion of Undulating Currents Height 27 cm 2005 53

蜎낊⻨ 笡⮬▇┞ Song of Reeds and Wind Series I Height 93 cm 2011 54

PAINTINGS Ink Oil Composite Lacquer

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唙焪 Dream Stone 60 cm x 60 cm 2007

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ISBN: 978-1-85149-909-0

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£30.00/$40.00

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