UK show contrasts British, Chinese porcelain-making

Clare Twomey [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I went to Royal Crown Derby, which is one of our great porcelain producers. They agreed they would do this using their Avesbury design, one of the company's oldest that dates back to the 1930s and which incorporates 22-karat gold. It is English style and has lovely pheasants contrasting with the very Chinese peony flower design of the Chinese vases."

Whereas, the Chinese company could easily fire 80 large vases, Twomey found it difficult to find a single kiln in the UK that could now fire a vase 1.5 meters in height. She eventually had to go to Josiah Wedgwood and Sons in Stoke-on-Trent, which has a kiln big enough.

"When we fired the vases people from all over the factory came to look at what we were doing. We did three since you can't go to this trouble and then break one. That we could only do this at Wedgwood showed that we just can't do what they do in Jingdezhen," she said.

"At the same time the design by Royal Crown Derby is an example of what can be made in Britain today. The vase we have on display costs more than the other 79 vases put together.

"I am not saying, however, that the Jingdezhen factory could not have laid the 22-karat gold if we had asked them to do so."

Twomey says part of the idea behind the installation is to show how ceramic skills had changed over the centuries, with the UK becoming a leader in bone china production in the 18th century.

Twomey, who was brought up in Suffolk in the east of England, studied at the Edinburgh College of Art before doing a master's at the Royal College of Art in London, where she graduated in 1996.

Now a research fellow at the University of Westminster, she has had a number of major exhibitions, including The Secret History of Clay at the Tate Gallery in Liverpool in 2004 and Trophy at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2006. Many of her exhibitions such as Made in China have a social and historical context.

Twomey has not publicly revealed the name of the Jingdezhen manufacturer, since she says any number of Chinese manufacturers could have supplied the vases.

The installation, where the vases stand almost as tall as Terracotta Warriors, has previously been displayed in Norway and at the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent.

She believes the Harley Gallery is an impressive venue for the exhibition. The gallery is the home of The Portland Collection, one of the most impressive art collections in the UK outside of London including paintings by George Stubbs and Anthony van Dyck.

"It has been a pleasure working with them. There is a very good team there and they were very open about the way the works should be shown," she says.

Made in China is on show at The Harley Gallery (www.harleygallery.co.uk), Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, UK, until Aug 14.

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