Productionline

Ceramics from Jingdezhen are very famous in Europe. One of the most widely known objects is the rice pattern bowl made at the Guangming Porcelain Factory. You can buy this bowl for about 2 euros in any Asian shop back home. But to understand its true significance, I needed to come to Jingdezhen and see for myself. It takes just 97 seconds to produce every one of these bowls before it is ready for firing. But in that time each piece goes through the hands of at least 17 different masters until it is finished. I have created this project to honor these masters and their skills. I interviewed a worker involved in each step in the process of making a rice patterned bowl at the Guangming Porcelain Factory. It was important to me to speak to each of them. I am fascinated to learn about how the factory is organized together with its procedures and I want to know the people behind the processes. Following my time at the factory I created a series of bowls following the shape of the Guangming Factory bowls – one for each worker. Each bowl bears an permanent stamp of the name of the worker. Typically, this type of stamp would refer to a company brand or a recognized artist’s name as a sign of the origin of a product.However, it is these worker who are shaping the factory and that is why I think each and every worker deserves their own stamp. They are the artists behind the factory label of the Guangming Porcelain Factory. I have banded the rim of each bowl with the typical cobalt blue line. The length of the line represents the time added by each step of the process the workman takes. When viewed together the bowls represent the entire production line and the process time connected with the people behind the 17 pairs of hands who make the Guangming Factory possible. The artist poster booklet shows the faces behind the names and is the research outcome of my interviews and time at the Guanming Factory.