Pottery Arts on Canal in Hangzhou

A few days after the curtain fell on the four-day 2010 Hangzhou Creative Cultural Industry Expo on October 18th， 2010， I visit Zhejiang Kilns and Pottery Art Park. It is a sunny afternoon. The park looks tranquil. I follow a stone path to a group of white-wall black-roof houses in the woods. In the corridors connecting the houses are some benches made of elm and stone mortars， a puppy running here and there in a leisurely way. A few days ago， the park was a venue of the expo when people came to visit a few exhibitions being held here concurrently. Now the 20-hectare park is home to Zhejiang Kiln Museum， Zhejiang Kiln International Creativity Center， Zhejiang Kiln and Pottery Salon， Zhejiang Kiln Pottery Art Training Center， Zhejiang Kiln and Pottery Gallery. It is an urban park for tourism， education and art.

The place where the park sits today used to be a shipyard for building and repairing inland-river ships. Environmentally， the park inherits and maintains the shipyard. It is flanked by Yujia River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In the park， you can view the canal largely from everywhere.

It is a group of students from China Academy of Art that have turned the shipyard into a center of creative pottery. These pottery artists have big dreams.

I have a conversation with Si Wenge， the chief developer of the park. He looks like an artist. He has a goatee and a sports cap. His temporary office is on the ground for the convenience of handling things there for the exhibitions during the expo. His office is on the second floor of a building on the canal. Both the eastern wall and the floorboard are of glass. Outside the glass wall is the canal. And under the floorboard is a dock. When it rains， the water from the canal flows into the dock.

I ask why they chose to build the theme park in the previous shipyard. The 46-year-old developer explains that pottery has close ties with everyday urban life and that the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is a key constituent of Silk Road on Water. In the ancient times， silk， cereal and pottery were shipped to four corners of the nation from Hangzhou. The place is of special significance for the park.

The park now serves as a center for college-bred avant-garde pottery artists. The young pottery artists hope to bring pottery into people’s houses again. They now focus on creating innovative household utensils and aim to enhance life quality for the city’s residents.

Si Wenge， a graduate of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (the predecessor of present-day China Academy of Art) in 1988， has been engaged in urban public art design and development over the past 20 some years. He is now chief developer of Art Center of China Academy of Art and of the park. And he is not the only established artist engaged in the creative activities at the park. Liu Zheng and Zhou Wu， two major pottery artists of national renown and also major scholars with China Academy of Art， are also engaged at the park.

In his reply to the question why he has turned from environmental art to pottery， Si says that now he feels pottery is a more expressive and inspiring form that allows great freedom and produces unexpectedly delightful art results.

In addition to the established pottery artists， a group of young artists now work in the park. They jokingly call themselves “clay-playing kids”. Most of them are born in the 1980s and are from China Academy of Art. One is from Japan and one is from the Republic of Korea.

I visit the studio converted from a workshop of the shipyard. The room is full of finished or semi-finished pottery artworks. In a corner are a few young men engaged in a discussion. I walk over and join them. As we belong to the same generation， our conversation starts and proceeds with great ease.

“I feel what we create here are really excellent art pottery. Our pieces embody our experience and understanding of life and art. They are more than crafts or techniques”， says He Bowen， who just graduated from the academy in 2010 with a degree of master. I hear sincerity from the bottom of his heart in this statement.

Pottery as an art is both old and young. In the hands of these people， pottery art carries forward tradition and pioneers in an avant-garde style. With focus and dedication， the artists are creating a legend of fire， water and earth. They bring vitality and vigor to the place of serenity. They are recreating the glory of the ancient pottery civilization. □