Porcelain: A Contemporary Cultural Touchstone

瓷器——現當代文化的試金石

Nancy Selvage, 2012 

江西景德鎮(zhèn)有著一千年的制瓷史，它地處南中國，特有的地理環(huán)境為它提供了豐富的原材料，幾個世紀的瓷土和釉料生產技術的發(fā)展，大規(guī)模定燒御用瓷，供不應求的全球貿易，以及各種具備專業(yè)熟練技能的拉坯工、釉工、燒窯工所形成的龐大產業(yè)體系。從十三世紀至十九世紀初，這座小城不僅是御用瓷的主要燒制地，也是整個世界的瓷器生產地。它對全球范圍內的文化交流、審美、制瓷技術以及日常生活都產生了巨大的影響。

Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province has a thousand-year history of porcelain production thanks to abundant raw materials provided by southern China’s unique geological history, centuries of clay and glaze development, large scale imperial patronage, ravenous global demand, and an enormous industry of specialized and skilled clay fabricators, glaze painters, and kiln firers. This small city was the major source of porcelain for the imperial court as well as for the entire world from the thirteenth through the early nineteenth century, greatly impacting cultural exchange, aesthetics, ceramic technology, and daily life globally.

中東與歐洲經過了幾個世紀的實驗，歐洲才終于在1709年生產出第一件瓷器，比中國晚了一千年。這些實驗雖然沒能生產出瓷器，卻為發(fā)展新的陶瓷技術做出了貢獻。

Europe was not able to produce porcelain until 1709, a thousand years later than <?China and after centuries of experiments throughout the Middle East and Europe. These experiments failed to produce porcelain, but they did develop valuable new ceramic technologies.

在過去的幾十年中，景德鎮(zhèn)正在重獲新生，在世界陶瓷發(fā)展的舞臺上扮演著新的角色。當代藝術家們正如景德鎮(zhèn)歷史上的瓷器出口一樣具有流動性與多元化特征，這座城市所積累的深厚的陶瓷專業(yè)知識以及創(chuàng)造性使它成為中國乃至全世界學生、藝術家和設計師們心中的圣地。各種培訓計劃、藝術家駐地和大量的熟練工、工作室給這些“朝圣者”提供了條件。同時，這些外來者帶來的想法與定制業(yè)務也拓寬了景德鎮(zhèn)的視野與選擇。

Within the past generation Jingdezhen is experiencing a renaissance and has a new role to play in the development of world ceramics. Now that contemporary artists are as mobile and multicultural as Jingdezhen’s historic exports, this city’s remarkable concentration of ceramics expertise and creativity has become a mecca for Chinese and international students, artists, and designers. A variety of educational programs and artist residencies and a wealth of skilled labor and studio workshops support the increasing influx. In exchange, the new talent brings ideas and commissions that expand visions and options.

在改革開放時期，景德鎮(zhèn)的陶藝家在復興、保護和發(fā)展文化遺產中扮演著特殊的角色。在面對國際交流所帶來的新機遇以及城市的創(chuàng)新發(fā)展中，他們將流傳了一千年的陶瓷傳統手工技藝與基礎保持了下來，可以想見他們當時所處的一系列極其罕見的情境。

During the reform period of the last few decades, Jingdezhen’s porcelain artists have been in the unique position of being able to participate in the resurrection, preservation, and contemporary development of their cultural heritage. The confluence of new opportunities for global exchange and creative development within a city, that has maintained the infrastructure and skills for a millennium-old craft tradition, is an extremely rare set of circumstances.

許多中國當代獨立藝術家被吸引到景德鎮(zhèn)，試圖用瓷作為一塊“試金石”來表達與檢驗文化認同。對他們中的有些人來說，在中國貿易瓷中將不同文化下形成的中式材料與外國樣式混合起來，具有一種內在的關聯性。歷史上出口瓷的文化混雜性反映了個人多元文化經歷和家庭譜系。

Attracted to Jingdezhen, several contemporary Chinese diaspora artists have come to use porcelain as a “touchstone” for expressing and examining cultural identity. For some of them the cultural mix of Chinese materials with foreign styles in China-trade porcelain has a new relevance. The hybrid nature of historic export ware reflects personal multi-cultural experiences and family histories.

在二十世紀，許多西方陶藝家和藝術家拒斥裝飾性、技巧的完美性以及資產階級價值取向，從而割斷與中國出口品和工業(yè)產品的關聯。在與這些審美取向形成鮮明對比下，純凈的白瓷重新獲得了陶藝家們的青睞。當代藝術家正在從十八、十九世紀審美趣味中探尋新的關聯性，而這種興趣也正在工業(yè)產品與工業(yè)化進程中重燃。對西方藝術家來說，這些關聯范圍包括了挪用、文化意象的重讀、挑釁的社會性言論、概念邊緣的懷舊情結以及寫作生產過程。

Throughout the twentieth century most Western studio potters and artists rejected the decorative tastes, skilled perfection, and value of the bourgeois objects associated with Chinese export ware and industrial manufacture. In sharp contrast to these aesthetic values, the purity of white porcelain has regained favor among studio potters, contemporary artists are finding new relevance in eighteenth and nineteenth-century aesthetics, and there is a renewed interest in industrial products and processes. For Western artists these areas of relevance include appropriated reuse, reinterpretations of cultural iconography, provocative social commentary, nostalgia with a conceptual edge, and collaborative production processes.

此次展覽中的所有藝術家以其文化視角的多樣性、思想與情感的推動力、創(chuàng)造性與人生境遇，為景德鎮(zhèn)當代陶瓷藝術的發(fā)展與繁榮注入了活力與生機。在景德鎮(zhèn)非凡的制瓷史上，這一過渡時期正孕育著新一代的當地人才，吸引著全世界的目光，匯聚著中國乃至全世界的藝術家、手工藝者以及設計師。

All of the artists in this exhibition have invigorated the development and flowering of contemporary porcelain art in Jingdezhen with the diversity of their cultural perspectives, intellectual and emotional impetus, creative skills, and personal experiences. This fertile period in Jingdezhen’s remarkable history is nourishing a new generation of local talent, capturing global attention, and attracting national and international artists, craftsmen, and designers.