[Guan Zi | Interview 100] Xue Feng: Learning and Self-Understanding -026

Character Photography / Aidon

Filming location / Xue Rentang

Learn and learn

×

Xue Feng

In the field of purple sand, which pays attention to the inheritance of teachers, there is no learning from the teacher, and Xue Feng, who has learned from himself, has worked harder to accumulate knowledge and polish his skills with a consistent spirit of self-improvement, and in this way to fill the gap in the part of "master leads the door". Of course, his artistic background and professional journey have made him not have to start completely from scratch on the way to Zisha.

Compared with those purple sand works that have undergone professional and technical training, Xue Feng's works not only carry diligence, concentration and patience, but also reflect his own profound personality cultivation, but in any case, the never-ending spirit of self-improvement is the foundation of everything for Xue Feng.

I N T E R V I E W

Interviews

Guan Zi Platform Ai Dong live interview transcript

Guan Zi: You are teaching at the Pottery School while you are working on your own creation, can you first briefly talk to us about your experience?

Xue Feng: I am a native of Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, and after graduating from Jingdezhen Ceramic University in 1998, I went to Dehua Ceramics College, which is now Quanzhou Vocational College of Arts and Crafts, where I worked as a teacher. In 2005, hoping to further improve his major, he re-entered the graduate school of his alma mater. When I was faced with another choice after graduating from graduate school, I chose Taodu Yixing and taught at Wuxi Craft Vocational and Technical College so far.

In Yixing, in addition to the teaching work of the school, at the beginning it also took some urban sculptures to do, and two years later, I intervened in the purple sand and began to create some purple sand sculptures. Purple sand has its uniqueness compared to other ceramic materials - excellent plasticity strengthens the expressiveness of purple sand works; and the flexural strength and bonding ability of purple sand are also unattainable by other mud materials. These properties greatly expand the allowable molding range of purple sand mud. At the same time, the purple sand contains sand, as the saying goes, "mud is meat, sand is bone", the sand in the purple sand makes it have a special sandy grainy feeling at the same time, but also let us grasp the degree of mud to increase a certain degree of difficulty. This is like the two sides of the coin, on the one hand, the improvement of the technical requirements, on the other hand, the natural advantage of the purple sand material in the expression of some sculptural themes.

Xue Feng | Children's fun

Guan Zi: What prompted you to move from purple sand sculpture to purple sand pot?

Xue Feng: I think the most important thing is the close connection with life. After all, the purple sand sculpture is used for decoration and is beautified as the main purpose. Purple sand pot is different, it is born of tea, practicality is the first consideration. On the one hand, it is infected by the local atmosphere, on the other hand, it is due to my own professional inertia, around 2013, I tried to do it myself, I want to make a teapot to make my own tea, it should be an interesting thing. Of course, initially it was more from a practical and interesting point of view.

The first thing was to do "offering spring". Because I am a sculpture major, and I have done purple sand sculpture, I have a previous professional foundation, and the choice of "spring supply" is also because the production process of this pot itself requires some sculptural skills, so I do it quite smoothly. I still have my first finished product.

Xue Feng | Fruitful

Guan Zi: Are you all on your own in making pots?

Xue Feng: Basically speaking, this is the case, I did not go to the master specifically for this purpose. Having decided to learn how to make pots, I searched for information on this as much as possible, books, videos, tutorials, and advances in science and technology have provided a lot of convenience for information and knowledge. Choosing this way, in fact, is also determined by personal personality, I have always been more introverted, not good at dealing with people, to use the current Internet buzzword to describe is a bit "social fear", so this state of self-learning can make me more comfortable. Of course, self-taught pot making is certainly not an easy task. Take the production of pot lids, press lids, cut lids, insert lids... Each approach has its own peculiarities, and difficult problems like this need to be studied and overcome by myself.

The purple sand making technique has been passed down through hundreds of years of development and evolution, and has been included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list, which is complex and some core techniques, which cannot solve all problems by self-study, so my self-study is not completely closed.50 Thanks to the working environment, some of the problems I encountered in the process of learning and practicing were really inaccurate, and I could consult the teachers who taught pots in our school. In recent years, with the change of my creative stage, I will also communicate with some teachers who have done well in the industry, observe each other's works, and share their experiences. I have found that this process of communication is actually very helpful for self-improvement.

Guan Zi: If you were to divide your past years of pot making into several stages, how would you divide it?

Xue Feng: The first stage is the initial stage, focusing on theoretical learning and practical exploration, basically learning while doing, adjusting and improving. The second stage is almost a year later, at that time, I can slowly feel a little of my own rhythm, based on the accumulation of previous accumulation in the field of sculpture, I feel that I should be mainly flower utensils, it is more comfortable to do, and I like it more. So I started to consciously tilt in this direction. Now and even for a while, I will mainly use bionic devices, melons, fruits, flowers and trees, etc. are in my theme library. Like water chestnuts, pomegranates, pumpkins, gourds... These bionic devices have always been a unique part of the purple sand pot, but at present, the direction of bionic creation that we can see is still based on restoration, whether it is from the shape or from the clay color matching. I prefer to have some changes in my work, so my creation is still mainly based on purple clay, and the instrument type is more freehand. So although the theme is still those themes, it can make people feel different.

Guan Zi: Can you share with us where your creative inspiration generally comes from?

Xue Feng: Calligraphy and painting works have given me a lot of inspiration, especially some freehand Chinese paintings. Chinese painting pays attention to the nature of the teacher, such as the mountain in the Chinese painting, a layer of clear layers, thick and light lines, showing more of a majestic momentum. From the creatures in nature to a pot on the tea table, any figurative purple sand pot work is also a part and a whole composed of points, lines and surfaces, and I think that in this process of transformation, it is completely like Chinese painting, pursuing the ideological beauty between the similar and the unlikely, and reaching the meaning. But this does not mean that the production is arbitrary, rough and sloppy, on the contrary, the more it is like this, the more it requires the meticulous craftsmanship under the hand.

Guan Zi: Does your current pot making life and teaching work in schools produce any resonance?

Xue Feng: First of all, the teaching content has also changed. Our department is divided into three majors, sculpture, art and ceramic design, before I taught sculpture, now I transferred to the ceramic design major, teach purple sand flower ware this course. In my daily teaching, I emphasize to my students the importance of improving their aesthetic level. A good purple sand work must be both practical and artistic and balanced. If even the maker himself can't distinguish the beautiful things, then how to create good works, so improving his own aesthetic seems to me to be a course that every pot maker can't miss. Aesthetic improvement, if the kung fu at hand is not enough, things still can not be done, so I also encourage students to continue to practice by themselves, practice more, only by eye to hand, in order to have good works.

In fact, while cultivating students' skills and techniques, our school has always attached great importance to aesthetic teaching and aesthetic teaching, and has made many arrangements in improving students' ability to recognize, understand, appreciate and create beauty. For example, we will give students some appreciation classes to explain some excellent works (including its ideas). Every academic year, students have to go out to investigate, we will organize students to go to museums, art galleries, visits and study, organize students to see some large-scale exhibitions, including college graduation exhibitions, etc., although these are subtle processes, but undoubtedly useful.

Guan Zi: Are you satisfied with your current life and creative state? Is there anything I can share with you?

Xue Feng: My life is actually very simple, basically home, school, studio, three points and one line. As mentioned earlier, I am actually a bit introverted, which also gives me more time and space, and I am also very satisfied with my own state, it is precisely because of this rhythm that I can teach myself to make purple sand pots, and learn to have it. In the second half of the previous year, I began to learn the guqin, and playing the guqin can make my heart calmer, and I think this is very important. I have always firmly believed that self-improvement has no end, the pursuit of art is also without an end, "live to be old, learn to be old", on the way to learning, the road we have traveled, every step counts.

Xue Feng | years

W O R K S

Works on display

ˉ

Xue Feng | Persimmons are as desired

Xue Feng | Danjo

Xue Feng | golden autumn

Xue Feng | Bergamot pot

Xue Feng | Dark incense

Xue Feng | Fanghua

Xue Feng | Fruits

Xue Feng | Happy life

Xue Feng | Abundance

A R T I S T

Born in 1972 in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province,

Graduated from Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute with a master's degree in sculpture,

He studied under Professor Yao Yongkang, a famous sculptor and ceramicist in China.

He is currently a teacher at the School of Ceramics of Wuxi Craft Vocational and Technical College.

He has been engaged in purple sand sculpture, pottery, and purple sand pot creation.

His works have won many awards in the country, provinces and cities.

In 2008, the ceramic work "Fuwa 1" won the third prize in the Jiangsu Provincial Innovative Works Competition.

In 2009, the ceramic work "Fuwa 2" won the third prize of the first "Art Expo Cup" of Jiangsu Arts and Crafts.

In 2011, the ceramic work "Children's Music" won the gold medal in the second exhibition of ceramic innovative works in the "Art Expo Cup" of Jiangsu Province. The third prize of the 4th China University Works Exhibition.

In 2013, the third prize of the first "Jingxi Cup" Yixing Purple Sand Handicraft Competition.

In 2013, his work "Qinqi Calligraphy and Painting" won the gold medal of the 3rd Art Expo Cup Ceramic Works Exhibition.

Silver Medal in the 5th China Fine Arts Ceramics Technology Competition in 2013.

Silver Medal of the 6th China Fine Arts Ceramics Technology Competition in 2014.

Between 2008 and 2018, he published more than 20 papers on sculpture and purple sand.