Bay Area Art Exploration | Shiwan Ceramic Dolls-"Trendy Play" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Don’t know about Shiwan ceramic sculptures? But you may have seen the internet-famous Shiwan dolls. They are all beautiful in appearance and appearance, making people unable to put them down. Character pottery sculptures are the mainstream works of Shiwan pottery sculptures. In addition, they also include animals, garden art, and pottery sculptures of vessels.
Shiwan Town, Foshan, the pottery capital of Southern China, has the reputation of "Shiwan tiles are the best in the world" and has a history of 5,000 years of clay sculpture. Shiwan pottery reached its peak during the Song Dynasty and reached its heyday during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, becoming an important commodity on the Maritime Silk Road. Foshan Shiwan pottery and Jiangxi Jingde porcelain are famous all over the world. Unlike official kilns like Jingdezhen, Shiwan is a private kiln whose pottery is produced for market demand and export and import. In addition to the production of daily pottery, there are also arts and crafts works, such as artistic ceramic sculptures and garden tile ridges. The tile ridges made in Shiwan are completely preserved on the eaves of temples and temples in Hong Kong and Macao.
Pottery sculpture is a perfect combination of clay, glaze and fire, and Shiwan pottery sculpture is also the same, but it also has local characteristics.
Raw materials? Pottery making is inseparable from clay. The local clay and granite sand in Shiwan have good texture and are unique raw materials for pottery making. Mixing clay is a common technique in Shiwan pottery making. Clays from different origins must be blended with local clay before they can be used.
Process? Clay is the base of pottery. Clay training is also called raw material processing. The clay, water and sand are mixed and stirred evenly to make the clay moderately soft. This is the first step in making pottery. ?
Shape is the frame of the pottery. There are many shaping methods, among which we have to talk about hand-making and casting. Hand-making is a process in which Shiwan craftsmen imbue their imagination with the work, and every step is a creation; casting uses the power of the rotation of the casting machine to coordinate with the movements of both hands. , pull the mud ball on the turntable into various shapes. After the ceramic blank is formed, it needs to be modified to highlight the details. Among them, the carving technique is particularly important. It is known as "embroidery on ceramics". It uses tools such as scrapers and bamboo slices to carve the ceramic blank to make it precise and vivid.
Glaze is the "clothing" of pottery. The famous Tang Sancai is a kind of pottery product with multiple colored glazes. Sancai not only has three colors, but products with cyan, green and yellow as the main colors are the most precious. Shiwan glaze colors vary in shades and colors according to different formulas, and are colorful. Take black glaze as an example. It is made of river mud, lime, plant ash and other ingredients. It is black and bright in color. It is often collected by folk artists because of its practicality and beauty. Black-glazed tea cups were popular in the Song Dynasty and were an essential tool for tea fighting. They are still retained in Japanese tea ceremonies.
The use of fire is the greatest discovery of mankind in the Paleolithic Age, and the calcination of fire is also a key step in pottery making. People in Shiwan call kilns "zao" and they are divided into steamed bun kilns and dragon kilns due to their different shapes. The dragon kiln is built on a certain slope and is named after it looks like a dragon lying down. The Nanfeng ancient stove mentioned earlier is the famous dragon kiln. Today it still retains the tradition of using three-day firewood for firing. The temperature in the kiln rises from 0 to 1000, reaching a maximum of 1300 degrees. The clay can be turned into a clay sculpture after 18 hours of high-temperature calcination and 30 hours of natural cooling.
As Guangdong is far away from the imperial court, its aesthetic style is more personal and merchant-like, and it attaches great importance to Feng Shui, which is also reflected in its decorations and collections. The ancients collected ceramic sculptures just like we modern people collect "trendy toys". They must be beautiful and trendy. Therefore, the themes and character shapes of Shiwan dolls were popular at the time.
In addition, Lingnan culture is deeply influenced by Western culture, so the glaze color of Shiwan dolls is bright, just like oil paintings. Its simple and casual shape, vivid and expressive image, intriguing taste, and colorful Glaze color has a unique artistic charm and humanistic sentiment. At the same time, the production techniques of Shiwan dolls adhere to traditional Chinese art, fully absorbing the essence of freehand brushwork in traditional Chinese painting, emphasizing exaggeration and generalization. Ceramics have a wide range of themes, some reflect the flavor of local life, and some are based on mythological stories. They are mainly divided into two techniques: realistic and exaggerated. The works show the characteristics of vigorous, rough, simple and straightforward.
Spending a lifetime making ceramic sculptures is the pursuit of many Shiwan craftsmen, and there are many such craftsmen in Foshan Xinshiwan Art Ceramics Factory. There are masters of arts and crafts who are still creating at the age of 80, veterans who have been in the industry for more than ten years, and novices who have just become apprentices. The skills of ceramic sculpture can be passed down from generation to generation.
Traditional Shiwan pottery sculptures mostly reflect mythological figures, Buddhist and Taoist ideas. With modern industrial production, the original practical daily utensils in ceramic sculptures have been replaced by industrial products.
Coupled with the rapid changes in the field of culture and art, people's aesthetic concepts and ways of thinking are constantly upgrading, and they no longer favor traditional works with single themes and conservative concepts.
The Lingnan region where Shiwan is located has had constant exchanges with foreign countries since ancient times, especially in the field of culture and art. Many advanced foreign craftsmanship and techniques have also been absorbed into the creation of ceramic sculptures. The fusion of traditional skills and modern aesthetics gives Shiwan ceramic sculptures new life. Walking into Shiwan Doll Street, you can see not only traditional-themed ceramic sculptures of characters and animals, but also ceramic sculptures full of contemporary art. The Shiwan doll that once could not cross the Yangtze River has now not only crossed the Yangtze River, but also traveled to the world. Young ceramics artists go abroad in search of inspiration and collaboration opportunities. They borrowed Western elements while also retaining Eastern techniques. Thus, the ceramic sculptures of the Marvel series of superheroes were born, which were welcomed by fans around the world.
? Shiwan ceramic sculpture is a traditional art form native to Guangdong and is mainly collected by Chinese in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asia.
As mentioned earlier, Shiwan ceramic sculptures are mostly handmade, and original works are rare and difficult to copy. This kind of work belongs to collection level. Original works have higher prices in the antique market, and there is a professional threshold for authenticating them. In the secondary market such as auctions, handmade unique products are even more popular. If you want to appreciate the original works up close, it is recommended to go to specialized museums, such as the Foshan Shiwan Ceramics Museum and the Ceramic Sculpture Hall in the Guangdong Folk Craft Museum. The Shiwan Pottery Wuxianqin from the National Palace Museum in Taiwan is a masterpiece of ceramic desk sculptures.
In addition to the "only one" original work, refined products can be made through inversion molding, which belong to the mass consumption level. Similar to prints, fine ceramic sculptures replicate the originals and can be used for home furnishings and decoration. There are price differences in the finished product depending on its volume, shape and glaze color. Master potters will also produce exquisite products according to market demand, which also have entry-level collection value.
It doesn’t hurt to buy a ceramic sculpture as a souvenir for fun. Next to the Shiwan Ceramics Museum is the Shiwan Doll Street. When you walk into different shops and see different ceramic sculptures, you will be spoiled for choice. If you want convenience, why not shop online?
Shiwan has long been famous as the pottery capital of southern China, and the local dragon kiln is still passed down from generation to generation. After thousands of years of forging, Shiwan ceramic sculpture art has become a treasure of traditional art and an intangible cultural heritage of Lingnan. Ceramics are not divided into different families, there are pottery and porcelain. After talking about pottery, let’s talk about porcelain in the next article.