Ceramic Sculpture as a Gateway to the Contemporary Art Scene – Three Views of HSU Yunghsu’s Ceramic Art
Work / DU Wen-Tuan
In the process of making ceramics involves factors of uncertainty, factors like the chemical changes of the glaze itself, the shifting of the atmosphere and temperature in the kiln, and the age and composition of the clay are difficult to control, etc. These fate-like mechanisms are key to how a ceramicist can control the outcome of the work. Some ceramicists have even described the key to success or failure of a work as a matter of “relying on the joy of the kiln god”. In the late 1980s, HSU Yunghsu gave up his career as a professional zither musician, and switched from performing abstract music to creating works in the down-to-earth media, clay. He questioned the uncertainty in ceramic art, “If it is in the hand of the kiln god, how can we claim it as artistic creation?”
This question prompted HSU to set a threshold for himself. First, he drew his design on paper, adopting the three-view method that he learned during his short period of study in Kaohsiung Senior High School (KSHS). Next, he carefully built, step by step, according to the drawings. However, after following this procedure a few times, he felt the work was complete once the design drawing had been done. He asked himself if “the method of planning and designing a work in advance seems to work for production rather than for creativity, can I stop using pictures? Can I make the work a little more dynamic?” Reflections and questions like this transformed his creative method several times, which in turn drove him to make changes in his artistic career that helped develop in him the acute sense of the clay that has stayed with him throughout his journey of “Clay Form” / “Sculpturing with Clay”.
The first time I saw HSU Yunghsu’s work in a gallery, I felt the body of the ceramic sculpture was about to break through the ceiling, and it seemed to say, “Be careful to maintain a buffer zone”. So, when I tried to move closer to observe and decipher the complex abstract structure of the work, I took heed to restrain myself. I was fascinated by the repeated patterns in the work, the strong tactile feeling, and almost instantly fell into a state of silence and confusion, full of awe. On some occasions I have had the honor to interview the artist, HSU. During the interviews, I was hoping that my questions could help me solve the puzzle-like aspects of HSU’s art and career. However, the answers, those countless sparks and inspirations of creative sessions in his life, are scattered like stars upon the dome of the night sky, mysterious, untouchable, but providing guidance and direction. Exploring HSU Yunghsu’s long and winding road of artistic creativity, intertwined with his 35 years of experience working with clay, I try to recapture the “three-view” drawing method and appraise his life and art in three parts. By going back in time, I have tried to enter the world that HSU built in concert with clay.
In the first part, the scene of HSU’s artistic life is outlined in a sketch. Along the timeline, we will see his determination in the significant moments of decision-making, the sweat and the harvest, a profile of focus and control of the development of his creative life. The events and activities he experienced mark a path towards the contemporary art scene that allow us to follow his trail across the fertile soil of modern ceramic art and through the changing landscape of Taiwan ceramic art. In the second part, I look at the works as if from a drone or through an automatic time-lapse camera, wandering in space measuring topography of the land. Following the trajectory of HSU’s body during the creative process, I try to explore how his movements extend and form the coils into shape, and how he maintains a unified aesthetic proceeding from individual units to the whole structure. The third part acts like a visit. By visiting his public installation works to experience them in their site-specific environment, I try to identify the ways in which HSU has challenged the boundaries of clay art with his ceramic sculptures. I also try to assess how he establishes the spirit of place / field with clay that emanate from his great public works.
Part I HSU Yunghsu’s Artistic Life Scene
The Winding Road
HSU Yunghsu was born in Kaohsiung in 1955. Since childhood, he showed a remarkable talent for art. He was often chosen to represent his school in painting competitions and often went home with prizes. Another activity that played a big role during his youth was track and field athletics, especially running. He became a member of the school team at Kaohsiung Municipal Second Middle School (now as Cianjin Junior High School) after being admitted to the school because of his athletic prowess. Due to his family’s poor financial situation at the time, he practiced hard to earn a state financed spot in the Sports Experimental Class at Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School. Unfortunately, he got injured on the last mile of the competition to obtain the qualification, ending his dream of becoming an athlete. As a result, he then had to face the challenge of passing the joint entrance examination despite having neglected his studies due to track and field practice. Nevertheless, he worked hard and was admitted to KSHS with a high score. However, due to his family’s economic situation, he had to give up after one year of study. After his second try at the entrance exam, he finally entered a public-funded teachers college.
HSU went through a winding journey during his youth. He was living through the ups and downs of dreams and reality and he gained tenacity and strength from the track and field training. Perhaps the setbacks he faced and the countless hours of training prompted his dedication and focus on the study of art. Since that time, he remained zealous in his dedication to creativity and perhaps even more so now as he has entered the mature phase of his career as an artist.
In 1971, he entered Pingtung Teachers College. The school’s Chinese Orchestra was well-known in Chinese music circles in Taiwan and many students joined the Orchestra club. Following the trend on campus, HSU intuitively chose the zither as his instrument in the club. He also joined the track and field school team. While this was going on, he fell in love with painting and so, on his days off from school, he would often pack his painting tools on his bike and ride to the suburbs to do sketches and paint plein air. He lived a full, happy school life, like in a summer camp.
Before he got his hands into the clay and actively pursued a career as a professional ceramicist, HSU lived life into middle-age burning his candle at both ends. Just as he had developed his interests and talents with diligence and focus, he devoted himself to learning playing Chinese zither. He once went to Taipei to learn from a famous Chinese musician. He left as soon as he got off work and returned to Kaohsiung the next morning on the overnight cheap coach, and then went straight to the elementary school to teach his classes. Such diligence is what made him an excellent Chinese zither performer as well as a teacher. He has had five Chinese zither music recitals, and experienced a wonderful stage life. However, with the responsibility of teaching in the elementary school on weekdays, he had become so busy that he only had one day off a month, and his physical and mental health suffered due to the stress. The strength and muscles that he so carefully trained in his youth were now fading away. In addition, when one of his friends in the zither community suddenly passed away, HSU realized he needed to take better care of his health. Hence, in 1985, he decided to end his career as a zither performer, and so, striking a final melancholy chord, the songs, the melodies, and the stage life came to an abrupt end.
Arriving at the starting point of creating works in clay 1987-1992
Between 1985 and 1987, HSU returned to art. One of his colleagues in the elementary school approached HSU with the idea that they open a pottery studio together. At first, HSU could only prepare the clay and tools for production. One time he was trying to make a few cups and glued the handles on and left them on the shelf to dry. When he returned to the studio the next day to check on cups, all the handles were twisted out of shape. It turned out that the scorching sunlight from the transparent corrugated board roof caused the clay body to shrink too quickly. It was the moment when he first realized that the texture of clay changes according to shifts in temperature and humidity. The phenomenon deepened his interest in clay. He wanted to learn more and soon began to buy books to study by himself.
The more he read the more fascinated with ceramic art he became. He was on constant lookout for books to read related to ceramics. He even looked for English texts, and asked his friend to look for books about ceramics in the United States. He read the books in English by looking up every word using electronic dictionary and managed to overcome the language barrier in his thirst for knowledge about ceramics. From his extensive reading, he accumulated enough knowledge on materials and glazes. With his newfound knowledge, once he touched the clay again, he seemed to have gained an immediate tacit understanding for the material. The new feeling stirred HSU’s desire to work with clay, to immerse and lose himself in clay to explore its potential. Indeed, he went on to such an extent that for years to come, he would forget the pain of arthritis that had previously plagued his body.
HSU Yunghsu’s wife, LIN Hsiu-Niang also learned ceramics. Together they studied under Master Lin Jui-Ching who taught them wheel throwing and how to use porcelain clay to develop solid throwing skills. In 1989, HSU and his studio partner built a wood-firing kiln. They designed a beautiful one-chamber kiln but it turned out that the firing temperature could not exceed 1,000 degrees. They asked for professional advice and after a thorough examination, they finally made it work. These experiences fueled HSU’s desire to enter the world of ceramic art. During the 1980s, learning pottery became very popular in the southern Taiwan. Ceramicist Winnie YANG, who settled in Kaohsiung with her husband and opened a ceramic studio, played a significant role in the popularization of pottery. Before moving to Kaohsiung, YANG completed a MFA of ceramic art in the States and was subsequently recruited by the Science and Technology department in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. In 1990, HSU studied under YANG to learn all aspects of ceramic techniques in her basic class. Although HSU already had explored most pottery skills by himself, the experience of learning in full from YANG gave him the opportunity to work in and reassess the different methodologies, so as to discover an appropriate creative direction for himself.
Struggling to leap forward, expanding the boundaries of ceramics works 1990s
Over the following three years, HSU Yunghsu participated in several important domestic art competitions and did so with great success. For example, he was in the First place of Excellent Prize of the Ceramics category, both in the 21st and 22nd (1994, 95) Taipei Fine Arts Exhibition. He won the Bronze award of Innovative Form category, adults group, of the 3rd and 4th (1995, 96) Taiwan Gold Ceramics Award. He got in as finalist of many other domestic or international competitions, like the 4th Alveiro International Artistic Ceramics Biennial in Portugal. In one single year 1995, he won seven competition awards! Like an emerging star, HSU shone bright in his first debuts, even if he had already entered his forties.
There are many examples of success coming from behind on the race field. Starting late and without a formal art education in academy, HSU often has regrets. However, his efforts to catch up in a short time were remarkable. Indeed, his great creative energy and will power in life caught up with the prosperous train of modern ceramics culture and exhibitions in Taiwan in the 1990s. The works HSU made at the time were in line with modern abstract forms that could be found in sculptures by Henry Moore. HSU made his works in clay and infused them with issues of human life and social criticism, which attracted the attention of art agents. Having successfully participated in many competitions and displayed his works in group exhibitions and at other venues, HSU could rest assured that he was well set for a long artistic career as a ceramic sculptor. In 1998, HSU made a major life decision. He resigned from his teaching position in order to fully focus on creating ceramic art. Although he had gathered the courage to exchange a steady job for a relatively unsure financial future, he found it prudent to consult a number of senior ceramicists on this decision. Among them, senior ceramicist, Mr. TSAI Jung-yu, assured HSU that, many people can teach, but not many can be ceramicist. His words made HSU confident in his decision, and so, in the first half of 1999, HSU launched his first solo show as a professional artist. He gathered a series of works dating back to 1994 and added a recent pair of ceramic figure sculptures, The King and the Queen, and launched his Century Dance Musical – HSU Yunghsu Solo Exhibition at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung. The show marked the boundary of ceramic art in the end of the last century.
Crossing date lines – trips to explore the dimension of body and space 2000-2010
Entering the new millennium, things began to change rapidly. As HSU was trying to develop a formal style bordering between figuration and abstraction, the size and volume of the works increased. The large-scale ceramic works, Like an Emperor and Like a Queen, both from 2000, show his growing ambition at the time to create public sculpture art. Established in 1999, the Juming Museum is located in mountains of Jinshan District. On the museum grounds, there is an area reserved for art exchange. HSU thought that maybe he could exhibit his works there. So, he gathered enough courage to submit his application to Master Ju Ming. The museum accepted his idea, and thus HSU found the ideal venue for his large-scale ceramic sculpture works. Against a natural backdrop of green vegetation, trees, hills, and distant mountain tops he placed sculptures titled Seat like on a stage. Each individual sculpture is a fusion of a torso with a head and a seat with anthropomorphic legs. They represent our desire to belong, for rank, or social status. Displayed ensemble, they form a narrative or a story line to the exhibition.
In the late 1990s, the short-term art residency or workshops programs had become popular among international art centers for a while. It began flourish in Taiwan as well. In the first decade of the 21st century, HSU frequently traveled to other places to create works, for example, he participated in three workshops within the year of 2001. In 2002, he travelled to Shanghai, China to seek new opportunities, and finally settled in Shanghai Pottery Workshop to create works and teach at the same time. In 2003, he had a shift in his art career. After studying hard for three months, he passed the entrance exam and was admitted to the Graduate Institute of Applied Arts of National Tainan University of the Arts and studied with Professor CHANG Ching-yuan. Introduced by Professor CHANG, he embarked on a long-distance creative journey to and from Taiwan and the United States. In the first half of 2004, he went to the College of the Ozarks (MO) in the Midwestern state of Missouri. In 2005, he went to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, NY) in the northeast, and in 2007, California State University Long Beach, (CA). During this period, HSU’s works were appreciated by the curator of Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park. In the second half of 2004, he was invited as a guest artist to create works in the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park.
During the long-distance journeys, HSU underwent intensive changes of time and space. He also accumulated experiences when he worked as a residential artist in the schools and paid visits to the surrounding areas. What he had seen in the tour had helped to change HSU’s vision and creative method from object-making to the diversity of the external world. He would then reflect on those experiences and enter into dialogue with the philosophical issues he was studying at that time or investigate his own creating methods. He was particularly impressed by the minimalist installation art of a large-scale contorted and inclined steel plate by American sculptor Richard Serra (1939-) during one of his trips in 2005, which inspired him to think about the spatiality of his works and the critical limit in his creation. Furthermore, he started to read Foucault’s Technologies of the Self, and gradually he formed the contemporary aesthetic concept of his representative works.
After returning to Taiwan from the United States in 2005, HSU experienced a narrow escape from a car accident on the way to the school studio. In order to soothe the fright at the moment of life and death, he drew experience from his inactive period of the R.I.T creating residency. He started with holding a small clay ball in hands, and then pressed and kneaded it repeatedly into cup-shaped or boat-shaped fragments, and then slowly stabilized his emotions and released pressure. This experience, in which the action and perception of the body takes the initiative in the creative process, aligns the work creation with the artist himself.
Then, through the study of Merleau-Ponty’s discussion on bodily perception, he accumulated experiences repeatedly over a long time of kneading into clay, coiling with fingers and palms, telling the humidity and plasticity of clay, to find the critical limit of the body and his works. The technology of self that led to his rebellion against ceramics finally made his transcendence of the clay body. With a huge and extremely thin extension, the clay body was once-fired into a ceramic sculpture in the shape of a loop. The loop engages with contrasting features, which are hard and brittle, penetrable and yet close to borderline. It was first shown in HSU’s graduation exhibition in 2006, Transcending Boundaries – HSU Yunghsu Sculpture Exhibition.
He later on expanded and multiplied it into a dozen of two-meter-high ribbon-shaped oval ceramic sculptures, and displayed them in the show Theatre of Clay – HSU Yunghsu Solo Exhibition. It was curated and arranged into a theatre like space in the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2007-2008. In the exhibition venue, viewers can walk among these ceramic sculptures, like in the gardens of southern China, and at the same time feel the gentleness and perseverance of the maker – HSU’s fingers rubbing into the clay thousands mes. HSU continued to practice his creative method based on bodily perception and physical asceticism. After his work 2007-06 won the grand prix of the 8th International Ceramics Competition Mino in Japan in 2008, he was like entering into another time zone through an entrance made of ceramic loop, stepping into the progress of contemporary art.
Endless Horizons
HSU once said to himself, Transcendence is, to surpass life by my life, to surpass art creation by my artistic creativity, and to surpass my life with my artistic creativity. As we look back on his path, from an athlete, a zither musician, to an artist of ceramic sculpture at the present, it is obvious a rough road full of tensions. The tensions are then conveyed through the concept of transcendence pursued in the creation. His strength comes from his powerful mind and his confidence to face constant trials and conquer difficulties. He makes breakthrough on his work because of his life, and then he transcends his life because of his work, which leaves the imprint of time and continues to evolve bit by bit.
HSU has been wrestling with the clay for many years, so much so that his hands were often wrapped bandages as he pressed and kneaded the coils. While working on his sculptures, he kept a bending posture for so long that he had to wear a corset to support his back. He regards philosophy as the foundation of human endeavor and strives to absorb the philosophy that is the backbone of contemporary aesthetics, and he then tries to put it into practice. With his rebellion against ceramics, he managed to overcome the difficulties of sculpting and acquired the necessary kiln facilities to fire his sculptures, and at the same time exploring critical limits of the clay and his body. He always takes great care that the secure installation and presentation of his works is carried out to the letter. These endeavors enabled HSU to realize his artistic expression in clay and to transform the primitive yet civilized features of the clay into contemporary art.
When I look at the subtle texture left by HSU’s fingers continuously pressing and working the surface, I imagine that the imprints must have happened in succession every 1-3 seconds, and when I take three steps back, I fully realize the countless hours involved in its creation. The artist, through his labor and his sculptures, sent me on an aesthetic journey through time and space towards endless horizons, towards magnificent scenes valleys, mountains, and rivers.
Part II From Coils to Ceramic Sculpture – Infinite Manifestations of Clay
Coiling is probably the oldest, the most personal and direct method of shaping in clay. First you roll the clay into a strip. Then, squeeze and press the strip in the palm of the hand to lay it out in the desired shape. Repeat the steps, adding and carefully combining layer by layer to build the vessel. Although the coiling method is relatively slow compared to the wheel throwing technique, coiling allows the creator a higher degree of control over the clay. Masters of ceramics who are partial to imaginative, complex shapes or works on a grand scale will are drawn to the coiling method. HSU Yunghsu always has used coiling to build his sculptures.
1994 – The watershed in creating static or dynamic works
In the late 1980s, while HSU was setting up his own studio, the new developments in Taiwanese ceramic art revolved around a modern artistic expression of the vessel. Influenced by this trend, HSU made his first closed box-shaped object with a sphere embedded on the side. He called this symmetrical and well-balanced vessel Shape (1990). The surface of the vessel is layered with slips in different colors, then carefully scratched off the top-layer in places to reveal the delicate coloring and complex texture underneath. Soon after followed Sgraffito Urn(1991), Target(1992), and Link(1993), all of them vessels formed by the coiling method and treated with the same decorative layering-technique. Those works were done according to a design on paper and a laid-out plan, and followed step-by-step, perhaps as a gentle poke at the myth of kiln gods.
However, HSU gradually became dissatisfied with the strictures of a creative process, which controlled the outcome from the beginning stage of conception to the finished product. In 1994, he entered two new works in the Taipei Fine Arts Exhibition competition, Drop and White Movement – Dance. Both works were rendered with different techniques and in two different expressions. The work, Drop, won the first prize in the ceramic art category, while White Movement – Dance was among the finalists. Although Drop is a dynamic closed-form with a surface of warm and refreshing colors, it was executed according to strictures of a preconceived plan. It might look like a new beginning, but it did in fact signify an end. HSU did not continue the style of Drop, but chose instead to work in the direction of White Movement – Dance where he recognized the potential to extend the limbs freely and openly, in a dance-like rotation. The movement of coiling and centrifugal outwards force facilitate the creation of dynamic works, which in turn open up a wider stage to be explored in clay.
Dance. Dance. Dance.
When coiling from the bottom to the top layer by layer, the body naturally drives the footsteps and hands to rotate around the work, twisting and extending outwards and upwards in a coherent rhythm. Under these conditions, the shape of the vessel begin to take on aspects of the human form, branching-out or reaching out with limb-like appendages, simulating a body lost in a graceful dance. Works such as White Movement – Dancing Together (1994), Dancing at Night (1994), Phantom Dance (1995), The Eternal Dancer (1995), and Life on the Stage (1995), all share similar movements, but each follow its own choreography corresponding to its specific structure and texture. In 1994, in a bookstore in Kaohsiung, HSU saw for the first time, an album book of British sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986). He was immediately fascinated by the artist. The image of “Reclining Figure” entered his head and guided his hand while he was coiling and he began building his sculpture higher and higher. He used the three-leg structure as the base while he developed and extended the swirling dance movement in the upper part. The centrifugal force and dynamic flow and growth of the form posed a new problem: What should be the final reach of the shape? How to finish the sculpture in a graceful pose when the music stops? These questions began to weigh upon his mind.
Apart from the configuration of the works, HSU has explored the aesthetic implications of contrasting surface textures. Three decades ago, materials were not very stable, so HSU would experiment and test the clay during the preparation phase. He tried combining different types of clay in order to achieve a certain texture or color that he desired for a specific work. For example, Dancing at Night was his first piece with a coarse texture created with feldspar particles. Despite choosing coarse clay, HSU wanted to avoid any perceptions of the craft-mentality that the material might convey, and so he would polish the surface until all notions of coarse pottery were eliminated. For this, he would apply a layer of engobe and then polish it down to the desired degree of smoothness. For example, in works like Dancing Together (1994) or pieces from the White Movement series the surface has been painted over with lacquer. Of course, HSU’s treatment of the surface could also be due to considerations regarding the permanence of the work.
1996-2000 Life is a Drama
With the swirling, free dance gesture, HSU’s works entered the public scene as he won more competitions and chances to show his art in the exhibitions, and with each new step of the dance, the forms of his works became more eye-catching. The sculptures begin to have extraordinary configurations, often with complex structures, writhing, twisting and turning. For example, Joining for a Dance (1995), Phantom Dance (1995), Dancing Together II (1995), and Life is a Drama III (1996) all combine two parts. The function of the lower part, or “reflective pedestal”, is to raise the height of the work and the upper part to create a dramatic momentum. In addition, the compositions of works like Refine (1997) and Split (1998) are dominated by suggestive dynamic shapes like flying ribbons in the hands of a dancer. The forms seem to respond to some profound abstract music, a melody with rhythms, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. The gripping flow of these sculptures bears testament to HSU’s vivid visual imagination as well as his strong artistic conception.
Setting aside the dramatic configuration and dynamic movement of several his sculptures at the time, the character of HSU’s aesthetic vocabulary became more concrete and the narratives more refined. In the work Riding the Crest of Fortune (1997), a mask floating or placed on an altar-like center and surrounded by animated columns, evoking the image of Ancient Greek theatre. The two works, King and Queen (both 1998) were HSU’s first figurative sculptures that combined a four-legged seat with a human torso inspired by Western tradition. Here his creative approach included contrasting conceptions of void and addition, with the hollowed-out torso and the inflated feet, striking a humorous balance between deconstructive elimination and abundant imagination. During this period, elements like masks decorated with gold leaf, African masks, cone-shaped pillars carrying masks, anthropomorphic feet and seats, are used to create works full of mystery and aboriginal atmosphere. The large outdoor ceramic sculptures, As a King and As a Queen, both from 2000, can be seen as a junction where all those elements come together in grand full play. They combine a stylized human torso with the form of a seat, the mask-like faces are covered with gold leaf much like the golden mask from the Life is a Drama series. Their hands are resting on the knees like the solemn and mysterious ancient Egyptian pharaoh statues. African masks decorate all four sides of the pedestal. The assembly of images drawn from different cultures and mixed ideas create the backdrop for a surrealist drama, the fable of the “Seat”, a narrative about position, power, and social status.
Since the early 1990s when HSU introduced the element of dance into his art, his creative thinking has revolved around the nature and condition of human body. These ideas could also have been prompted by his career in music, a time of joy and rich experiences. The configuration of the two giant ceramic sculptures, As a King and As a Queen, can be traced back to the “reflective pedestal”. Over time, the pedestal gradually transforms into a seat with erect heels or round feet. A seat itself is like an “invitation for people to sit”, yet the size of these works is so big as to make it almost impossible to climb onto the seat. This creates a tension between the work and the audience. Large-scale sculptures are to be expected in spacious outdoor plazas, but as piece of public art, they will have to accept the physical interaction and interpretation from the audience.
Deformation, Splitting, Transcending
In the new century, HSU Yunghsu began to participate in workshops in different places. He was offered a residency in one of the artist villages in Shanghai to make new works and teach. He worked in a foreign environment where he had to adjust to the working mood and circumstances of the place. In this unsettled, yet very stimulating state, HSU was searching for new inspiration, new sculptural forms, and sensed an artistic breakthrough approaching. The “Myth” series, dating from around this time, reflects this state of mind.
Speaking of the “Myth” series, HSU said, “The contrast in materials, forms, and texture can appear in one work at the same time, which is why I call it myth.” Starting from the works, Surpass (1999) and Agreement (2000), a new force of “deformation” can be observed. One of the results of HSU’s experimentation with material and forms was the introduction of dense, flowing glazes that, while seemingly separating from the clay structure, do in fact support it. This technique and its effects were fully realized in the work, Myth-8 (2001). Myth-8 looks as if the sculpture is transforming, melting, deforming, slowly splitting into two parts. The upper part has the vague appearance of a beast head or a sprouting bud while at the base, a heavy, thick droplet has broken free to support the whole structure like a foot. There is a sharp contrast between the bright glaze covering the organic curvy shape and the coarse edge and sharp corners of the clay structure underneath. The upward thrust of the bud is resisting the downward drag of the glaze, like spiritual desire struggling against the fetters of gravity.
In 2003, HSU Yunghsu was admitted to National Tainan University of the Arts to further explore the world of art and ideas. Under the guidance of Professor CHANG Ching-Yuan and the prevailing contemporary trend of the art department, HSU reviewed his past artistic creativity and established a sound basis for new creative ideas and methods. CHANG led him along a new path: “Change the form first, and then change your idea according to the work”. This meant that HSU first had to deconstruct or break the form apart and in his Myth 2004 series, created during his residency at the Art Center of the College of the Ozarks in the US, he did just that. In these works, all figurative elements have been removed in order to create completely abstract / non-narrative ceramic sculptures. The work 2004-10 encapsulates the process of his changing ideas and creative power. As his next step, HSU wanted to investigate the spatial challenges of a form. He tried to endow works with a certain ambience or energy through the application of slip mixed with high-saturation colors. The result was a virtual space projected through colored light or halo. This series can be seen as a tribute to the Spatialism of Lucio Fontana (1899-1968).
In the spring of 2005, HSU Yunghsu went to Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, USA as an artist-in-residence. During his stay, he visited the Dia Beacon Foundation in a state tour. He was totally overwhelmed when seeing three installation artists’ works in the gallery and the park space. Richard Serra’s large installation of contorted steel plate stands inclined to the floor but without support. It destabilizes the viewers’ perception of space by taking away their relationship towards the surroundings. Fred Sandback (1943-2003) used color yarn to trace and mark the space, defining the viewer’s perception of virtual space. Michael Heizer (1944-) created a series of four geometric pits (titled as “North, East, South, West) on the ground of the exhibition space. The viewers may feel attracted yet at the same time resisted to the negative space physically. These artists shared the minimalist features by delegating the execution to others and withdrawing human touch (including their own), and yet their works stimulate the viewer’s sense of boundary of physical space. It further inspired HSU to think, “How can a creator break through the limitations of media? How can I create a work that resonates with the viewers?” These questions were fermented in his subsequent dialectical thoughts on artistic creativity, leading him to read Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy, in which bodily perception is taken to evaluate his creating process and perceiving the human body as the measurement of the works. In HSU’s creating process, he has reinterpreted the ancient coiling method based on his own body experience, which he achieved by shifting away from habitual perception, trying different ways of coiling with different parts of hands and body. Eventually he achieved an ultimate harmony and regularity in his finger prints impressed into the clay, which becomes an unique vocabulary of his own.
2006 Rebelling against Ceramics
HSU has tried to implement ideas formulated by Michel Foucault in “Technologies of the Self”, especially the concept of “Aesthetics of Existence” by transcending his body through the artistic creative process. He recorded himself during the last 30 minutes of his working sessions and inspected his actions in the creative state. This way, he kept himself vigilant and determined to break away from habitual or traditional methods. In the beginning of coiling, he would skip the support structure at the bottom and instead work directly on the construction of the side wall. He kept stretching the form as much as possible while maintaining the same thickness of the section wall and eventually it became extremely large and thin. Another experiment was like “walking a tightrope”, or rather, a procedure in which he would remove the structural elements in a section that had been considered safe. By pushing this, he then identified all possible or impossible causes of the structural failures from the shards, cracks, fissures, and collapses. The work was between the critical point of success and failure.
HSU called the works that survived this harrowing experimental process, his “rebellion against ceramics”. He explained, “I was not trying to subvert ceramic art or challenge its so-called limits, but to focus on the characteristics opposite to a traditionally high-quality ceramics and regard it as ceramics that deviates from the traditional ceramics; therefore, I define it as rebellion against ceramics.”
There is a general perception that traditional ceramics is concerned primarily with objects that are made by the pursuit of smoothness and flawless surface and done by collective labor or individual craftsmanship. HSU’s “rebellion against ceramics” of 2006 can be seen as a struggle between his personal emotions, will power, and the properties of clay. During his process of making the clay thinner and thinner, his palms and fingers are constantly pressing, pinching, and squeezing. These constant movements accumulate physical labor and stress on the body. At the same time, the force of gravity pulls and drags on the stacking of coils, and changes in humidity levels under the influence of an environmental micro-climate will affect the plasticity of the clay. There is an element of time pressure, too, as the creator must connect the next unit of coils before the work gets leather hard. Taken altogether, the process was challenging to him, both physically and psychologically. Professor LIAO Jen-I compared the process to “spring silkworms producing silk, making a space which is originally nonexistent”, or a kind of “physical asceticism” somewhat similar to the kinship existing between the clay and the body of the artist. After bisque firing at high temperature, the clay sculpture finally becomes hard, yet also crisp and fragile. As the surface is covered with his finger prints and the unique digit-seals of his body, the tactile roughness of the unglazed clay seems to confidently release in the clay a mineral smell, reincarnated in the earth for thousands of years.
When the coiling completes, the huge oval clay sculpture goes into kiln carefully guided by collective manpower worked with mechanical operation. The risks of shrinkage and cracking in the kiln makes people feel unease. When the ceramic sculpture comes out of the kiln and enters the public space, it is raise up 90 degrees. After the turn, the sculpture is no longer oriented horizontally, a new vision is established and begins its stage of existence. HSU’s rebellion against ceramics finally exceeds the boundaries of expression in ceramic art. Clay is now representing HSU’s personal spiritual will power and emotion. The clay and the man, the material and the creator have merged to form a new artistic synthesis that cannot be replaced.
The Infinite Manifestations of Clay
In 2005, during his artist-in-residency at RIT in the US, HSU initially went through a period of inactivity which put him under pressure. To shrug off his artistic inertia, he developed an automatic technique where he would pick up a small ball of clay, then roll and knead it in his palm into pieces of cup shaped fragments. Sometime later, having returned to Taiwan, he narrowly escaped a serious car accident, and he decided to use the same auto-kneading technique to sooth the post-traumatic stress. Thus, in a sense, the “small units”, pieces of fragments and cup shapes, became testimony to his body experience. Through this technique, HSU had inadvertently developed a second group of deeply personal expressive shapes that could serve as an alternative to the structure of the circle band sculptures.
The fragmented and repeated “small units” were displayed in a series of ensembles for the first time in 2009 at exhibition, “Repeat – HSU Yunghsu Sculpture Solo Exhibition”. They were grouped, stacked, or distributed in free organic forms, both small or large in size, as if they were able to multiply independently of the artist. Like embracing each other with comfortable gaps in between, they were grouped in clusters occupying a corner, arranged in arrays on the wall, or spreading like moss in nature. The organic energy evolved and became more prominent in the exhibition, 2012 HSU Yunghsu Solo Exhibition – Becoming． Refrain. There the coils were connected and weaved together into a more complex, distributable structure, in which negative space, like in coral reefs and nests, make out a significant volume of the sculptures. In regards to these works, Professor GONG Jow-Jiun pointed out, “Between two creative styles, feminine aesthetics of reproduction and the masculine transcendence, HSU Yunghsu carried out more interpenetration with clay.” The “small units” ensembles were first seen covered or wrapped in bandage-like thin clay strips in 2018 at the Unfettered Encompassment – HSU YUNGHSU Solo Exhibition. Art reviewers has described the “small units” as “spores” or “frog eggs”, “flower blossoms or bushy leaves”, “rice husks”. The union of “small units” and thin clay strips created a vision that may be described as an ecological landscape like a view along a forest path. Much the same idea was brought out in the exhibition, Surmounting: HSU Yunghsu Solo Exhibition in 2020, curated by Associate Professor HSU Hui-Hsuan. She made an interesting observation regarding HSU’s jogging habits and the wide and long thin clay strips. In her opinion, the “small units” form an intricate landscape consisting of main roads, small paths, and spiral staircases. She hypothesized that these forms could be an echo of the moving vision of the artist as he was jogging along country road along the rice fields or a visual spiritual mystery that draws viewers into an intimate aesthetic experience.
Part III Beyond Image – The Ceramic Sculpture in the Landscape
Since he first created atmospheric stage setting in “Theater of Clay” in 2007, HSU had thought about treating his work as installation art, whether the work was designated for an indoor setting, like the popular contemporary art galleries in Taiwan and elsewhere, or outdoors, which is common for public art projects. He carefully considered the potential interactions between the viewers, the works, and the exhibition space. The viewers were invited to experience the work through all their senses. In fact, back in 2000, with the “Seat” exhibition in Juming Museum, HSU had already employed installation elements in a public art work.
When HSU Yunghsu studied for his MFA at TNUA, he always made works that could barely fit inside the kiln. He once said, “I will make the work as big as the kiln chamber will allow.” It is evident that the kiln space had come to play a vital role in his creation of ceramic sculptures. Of course, the size of the kiln limits the size of the work but it is also often closely related to the creator’s body experience. This might help to explain HSU’s concept of the “studio as the artist’s body”. In 2009, HSU was asked to create a public art installation project for “Anping Harbor Historic Park”. For this project he needed a bigger kiln, so he decided to set up his studio in Guantian district in Tainan. In 2014, HSU was hired to decorate the façade of the Singapore Select Group headquarter in cooperation with architect, Kay Ngee TAN. In order to facilitate this grand cooperative undertaking, HSU invested in two new, very large kilns, doubling the number of gas kilns of his studio. Altogether, the internal volume of the kilns amount to 58 , by far the largest in any personal studio in Asia.
This two-stage development, the 2009 Tainan studio acquisition and the 2014 kiln expansion, is indirectly related to his work in public space. From the kiln chamber to the outdoor space, public art or sculpture installation is a transitional bridge which connects HSU Yunghsu with the world. Huge projects involve manpower, modern technology and machinery, and each stage of the production must be completed efficiently to ensure the successful installation of the ceramic sculpture in the public space. It is a process where “clay” is transformed into “ceramics”, a process through which the artist dominates and defines a space with his artwork. On the surface of the ceramic sculpture, HSU’s finger prints embedded in the earthy texture. The fingerprints are not only signs of his artistic individuality, but also an artistic identification with which the ceramic sculpture integrates humanity, nature, and the land. The process allows the audience to encounter the works and partake in an extraordinary aesthetic experience.
Connecting with nature
In the public art installation project of “Anping Harbor Historic Park”, HSU wanted to incorporate one of the special geographical features of Anping harbor. In the harbor area, the southwest monsoon blows across the land every year, and the furious sound of the wild wind and waves is called the “Southern Roar” by the locals. Taking this famous historical geographical and meteorological phenomenon, the “Anping Sea Roar”, as a starting point, HSU created two upright, loop-shaped ceramic sculptures for the Sunset Platform in the park. He also expanded his artistic mark of the finger prints on the clay into two pieces of sculpture object. The residents of the local community were also invited to participate in the creative process by impressing slab with their hands. The slabs were then inserted as decorative elements in the pavement, stairs, and sloping area around the site. Through the clay, the artist and the local participants managed to reach out across time and space, and with their fingertips they embedded themselves collectively in the site to bestow upon the work a subtle yet profound sense of communal spirit.
Two main factors determined the setting of the two, vertical loop-shaped, ceramic sculptures. First, the openings had to face towards the sea so that the wind would resonate with the ceramic wall when it blows inland. If you walk up close or into the sculptures, the noise from the outside world is blocked as if you cover your ear with a seashell, and the sound of the wind can be heard more clearly. Second, with the change of the seasons, the angle of the sun as it sets into sea changes, the same happens to the trajectory of sun beams on the sea. In order to integrate these HSU oriented the work, aligned the opening of the ceramic sculptures with trajectory of the sun beams during winter solstice, spring equinox, and autumn equinox. It is as if the order of the infinite reveals itself in that short, profound moment when the beams of the beautiful sunset pass through the sculpture. The work not only resonates with the changing conditions in the local weather system, it also resonates with the movement of heavenly bodies above, participating in the deep cosmic dance.
Engaging with the modernity of architecture
During his cooperation with architect TAN, on the façade for the SELECT Group headquarter in Singapore, HSU faced both artistic and production challenges. TAN based his design of the SELECT Group headquarter on the image of a bamboo steamer to convey a sense natural warmth and humanity in a modern environment where everything can be replicated. The ancient and yet friendly medium of HSU’s tactile ceramic sculptures would, in TAN’s opinion, be the right response to this contemporary environment.
HSU was excited about the project and soon set about expanding his range of studio equipment. He cared about results and little about the cost. Besides the two 20 gas kilns, he invested in a large pug mill machine, a large slab roller machine, a customized large-size kiln shelf, and a kiln post 86 cm in height as well as other equipment. In fact, as it turned out, it was difficult to estimate the cost of the project. Many of the units had to be discarded during production and a frustratingly high number of faultless units were deformed, cracked, or otherwise damaged during transportation.
HSU also designed some equipment himself, equipment that helped to customize and streamline the production. For example, he designed the steel partition devices attached to the nozzle of the pug mill to slice the extruded tubular-shaped clay into measured sections. The extruder was operated by two people who sliced through each new tube section which soon flattened out into a big slab which would go into a slab roller machine. Next, the slab placed over a curved, wooden mold. The heavy curved mold was then lifted by a mobile pulley system and transported to a shelf system for drying. HSU’s studio production line was a spectacle to behold. Like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he placed the spirit of science of art at the service of architecture. In fact, HSU had felt uneasy about taking-on this project at first and thought it might turn out to be “the beginning of a disaster”. Nevertheless, he accepted the challenge and with a strong artistic vision, perseverance, and his experience in clay modeling, he managed to finish the project to great acclaim. Out of the 240 tons of American clay, HSU and his studio team produced and exported 2500 pieces of curved ceramic tiles, each piece weighing 90 kg. They were 3 cm thick, with a curved surface shape 210 cm long, 75 cm high, and about 55 cm deep. The four grand kilns who had been in constant use throughout the project could finally find a little respite.
HSU took over this industrial production with the mind of an artist. He was well aware that close cooperation with the architect was necessary to ensure the design and quality of the finished product would meet the standards required by the industry. HSU used his fingers to draw lines on the curved surface of each ceramic tile like a personal artistic seal of identification. As a result, although the ceramic tiles look the same by industrial standard each of them is unique, even if it is in a small way. The traces of his hand allowed a little bit of imperfection, and yet, the varied repetitions are more desired than the precise repetition of the industrial process. This approach was in perfect line with TAN’s idea of the expression of the medium. Through his creative input HSU did not only affect the architectural design of the building. His art added a sense of refinement and character to the site, a cultural and social spirit, which has made the building one of the local highlights of the region.
HSU’s public ceramic sculptures are aesthetics manifestations of HSU’s physical perception of space. People are able to perceive the uniqueness of the work as well as its friendly existence, as if it is a life form constantly changing and creating. From the basic coils to finished ceramic sculptures, HSU always wanted to surpass the boundaries of artistic creativity and make clay a gateway to contemporary art scene. We have surveyed the landscape of his ceramic art, and the features of the terrain are numerous and almost beyond imagination, however, they are all part and parcel of his extraordinary artistic vision.