Pushing the envelope
One of the most important tasks facing the artist is to infuse life into his work and make it more artistic so that it will offer greater value to collectors. That is what prompted Li to strike upon the idea of combining pottery with other forms of art. In 1995, as he was pondering how to give his works an increased feeling of light and texture, the first thing that popped into his mind was glass. To understand the production of glass he traveled south to Santimen in Pingtung County to study under the Aborigines there. The venture wasn't a complete success because he later encountered difficulties when he attempted to work the glass into his pottery.
He then turned his attention to lacquerware. Pottery is solid and simple, while lacquerware is fancy and ornate. The result of the communion between ceramic and lacquer can be seen from a distance, and it can also be appreciated from up close. And so in 1996 Li took up a year-long apprenticeship under Lai Tsuo-ming, who comes from a long line of lacquerware masters.
The lacquerware was little more than a dalliance at first; only after starting up the apprenticeship did Li learn how complicated its production process was. All too aware of the staggering physical and emotional commitment that pottery had already exacted from him, the prospect of plunging deeply into yet another branch of artistic endeavor gave him pause for thought. He had already experienced the number one scourge of lacquerware production-a terrible case of sumac poisoning through exposure to the lacquer. His skin swelled, blisters formed, and the itching drove him wild. It took months to develop lacquer tolerance. Once he finally made it through the "baptism of itching," however, he decided he would stick it out.
In combining lacquer with pottery, Li departed from the way lacquer is usually used. His objective was to achieve a new kind of texture and break with the norms of traditional lacquered pottery. Artists before Li simply took pottery as the base for the lacquer, while Li sought to preserve the linear patterns and texture of pottery along with the "layered light" effect of lacquer right on the surface of the finished work, thereby adding to its visual impact and achieving a melding of these two millennia-old art forms and blazing a new trail in the arts.
To combine lacquer and ceramics, the first task is to increase the porosity of the ceramic piece so as to aid adhesion by the lacquer. This requires experimentation with clay mixtures and firing techniques. The best way, Li found, is to add powder from pre-fired clay before the clay piece is fired. The more powder is added, the more porous the ceramic becomes upon firing. The other important point is to keep the firing temperature at around 1200 oC, which also increases porosity.
In 1997, Li established a lacquered pottery workshop, and in 1998 he put the workshop's lacquered pottery on exhibit. He invented a new Chinese character, Q, as the identifying mark for his lacquered pottery. The left side, '√, is the ancient Chinese character for lacquer, while the right, A?, is the ancient Chinese character for pottery. Q represents the combination of these two art forms. For Li, this is only the beginning
Unlimited possibilities
Li has been working for the past few years to revive the Black Pottery of China's prehistoric Longshan Culture. This was a type of low-fired pottery, soft and relatively quick to weather or dissolve, and susceptible to discoloration under exposure to sunlight. To enhance the collector's value of Black Pottery, Li had first to find a way to fire it at a higher temperature. After three years of experimenting, he finally hit on success. Firing the pots in an electric kiln, he took the temperature first to 1230 oC then turned off the kiln and waited for the temperature to drop to 1000 oC, at which point he would stuff a lot of camphor balls into the kiln through the peephole. Upon exposure to the high temperature, Li learned, the camphor balls would throw off carbon and thick black smoke in great quantity, imparting a black finish to the pottery. In the course of his experimenting, Li found that the pots were most absorbent at 800 to 1000 oC, so timing was key to getting the best results. As the temperature drops further, the pots don't blacken so well.
But there's more to blackening than just exposing the pottery to black smoke. The clay itself must be high in iron oxide for the smoke to penetrate. After trying many different types, Li finally settled on red clay from a couple of different places (Chingshui Rural Township in the Tatu Mountains, and Yuchih Rural Township in Nantou County). Li's "neo-Black Pottery" features clean, simple lines and decorative elements of lacquer and gold foil to offset the stark blackness of the pot itself. He plans to exhibit his Black Pottery for the first time next year.
More and more people in Taiwan have been taking up pottery in Taiwan since the advent of modern ceramics in the 1990s. Li stresses that pottery requires a wide assortment of different skills. The artist must be expert at throwing pots and mixing glazes, must know all about the structure of kilns and methods of firing, and must further be an accomplished sculptor and painter. And despite all that skill, firing pots in a kiln remains a black art; even a potter of nearly 20 years like Li must put up with a failure rate of 10 to 15%. Li advises potters to turn the frustration of failure into inspiration, using the rejects as an occasion to look into the reasons for failure and find a path to success. The subtle psychology of pottery is precisely what attracts so many to it.
"Work hard to be the best you can be." That is Li's advice for those thinking of taking up pottery, and it's also what he demands of himself. He points to glazes as an illustration of his point. There once was a time when each potter had to study and experiment endlessly to get just the right color. Today, by contrast, glazes can be bought in many different ready-mixed colors. But for the ceramicist who really wants to create something new, there are still a lot of colors that can't be bought off the shelf, so learning how to mix one's own glazes is the only way to open the door to unlimited artistic possibilities.
When asked what other materials he would like to combine with his pottery, Li goes deep into thought and starts naming some surprising materials, counting off on his fingers: Glass, wood sculpture, metal, stone. . . . I couldn't help feeling a surge of anticipation as I listened, wondering how long I'd have to wait before this restless young ceramicist would come up with his next big breakthrough.