Fan Ji

Sentimental representations of natural phenomena is a central topic in my research and ceramic forms. They not only extract on and represent aspects of an unseen nature, but also explore visual possibilities of a mutated human world and its regeneration. My obsessiveness toward nature are driven from Object Orientated Ontology, which rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects and makes distinct claims about the nature and equality of object relations. By incorporating different materials into one integrated object, my practice echoes this equality as they have been employed for the creative process no matter where they come from – nature or an industrial factory.

In the recent body of work, I fired clay together with metal mesh as a metaphor for the interaction between nature and the built environment. The clay when unfired has plasticity and natural movement. I use these material qualities to emanate natural lifecycles; the clay performing somewhere between my control and its autonomy. The metal part in my work erodes during the firing process affecting the formation of clay in both visual and chemical ways. I aim to create a surprising material symbiosis that portrays an apocalyptic turn in human-nature relationships under the Anthropocene, in response to the interconnectedness of life and all living things.