LOY Gallery sits along Tudor Court, which is a stretch of shops with large glass windows right outside Tanglin Mall. As you walk past and peer in, you might see, first of all, a neat row of porcelain vessels atop a softly lit pedestal — delicately painted cups and vases and a single plate.
Or maybe the first thing you see is the large, luminous portrait of a man on fire.
At first glance the painting appears to be on typical linen canvas — the sort painters use for acrylics and oils. But why does it almost seem to glow?
Porcelain and overglaze
Chinese multidisciplinary artist Wang Xiaolin (王晓林) is what is known as a “Jing Drifter” — an artist who has migrated to Jingdezhen, “Porcelain Capital” of China and arguably the world. Featuring his large-scale porcelain paintings, vessels, writing, and sketches, Future Is a Journey to the Past follows Dragon is My Middle Name and A Trail to Chase as LOY Gallery’s third exhibition of 2024, and is Wang’s first exhibition in Singapore.
While pottery has become an incredibly popular pastime in Singapore, the casual potter may not realise that almost all pottery studios in Singapore use stoneware, a category of clay that comes out of the kiln in varying degrees of off-white. Porcelain, which Wang uses, on the other hand, is very white. It’s known for its pure colour, translucency, and reflective, luminous surface — but also for how hard it is to handle. Wang, like many before him, works in tandem with artisans from Jingdezhen to produce both the functional ware and the flat, canvas-like slabs he paints on.
And Wang paints with something quite different from what Singapore potters are used to — he paints with overglaze. Also known as enamels, the medium’s usage in China dates back hundreds of years. It’s not currently found anywhere in Singapore’s pottery scene.
The usual pottery production pipeline is tedious enough: forming the vessel, firing to 1,000 °C (bisque) before applying underglazes and metal oxides, then firing to 1300 °C for the application of glaze (the glossy covering that creates air-tight, food-safe surfaces). Overglaze necessitates an extra fourth step if not more, because each overglaze colour used must then be fired separately. This is a level of tedium that few studios in Singapore can or want to undertake.
Why would anyone use overglaze then?
Applied on top of already-fired pottery, which has an impermeable and waterproof surface, overglaze allows for a higher level of precision and detail compared to underglaze on bisque. Mistakes made can be wholly wiped off with a wet cloth and redrawn, and small details can even be scraped off with a satay stick. Overlaid on porcelain, it also creates a smoother, watercolour-like effect.
In the details
And Wang’s skill with overglaze is immense. His ease with a brush is especially obvious in his depictions of people. Look, for instance, at the figures in Night with You I — how thin their eyebrows and eyes are, how single brushstrokes create the folds of their ears and their shirts.
Wang’s ability to paint smooth, even washes with overglaze is equally impressive. Note how gradual the transition is, in Night with You I, from the bare white of the figures’ arms to the warm peach of their hands. In The Shelved Space, he layers smooth orange cuboids one upon another — likely, each layer had to be fired separately to prevent them merging — creating a simple but mesmerising visual effect.
In Becoming a Sage, on the other hand, Wang intentionally smudges orange overglaze before it’s fully dried, creating faint, blurred remnants of colour that suggest billowing smoke and bring his flames to life. And, hints of red and green and specks of brown create a lifelike flush of colour beneath the figure’s skin.
Breaking it down
A closer look at Last Summer, in My Sister’s Orchard will show us just some of the ways Wang explores the different possibilities of the ceramic medium.
To start with, the porcelain slabs Wang paints on inherently possess a luminous white glow. A light smattering of cobalt gives an airbrushed effect in pale blue. Used to create negative space, black glaze carves out the shapes of the hand, fruit, branches and leaves, while a layer of brown overglaze conveys the texture of wood. Last, I presume, Wang draws a thin line of gold, dancing around fingers and lower branches.
On this small porcelain canvas, Wang’s meticulous layering creates stunning depth and contrast. The composition is dynamic, with lines that lead the eye in many directions — but always back to pockets of rest. It exemplifies how Wang takes full advantage of his material, of all of porcelain-making’s many steps and natural qualities to create these complex visual experiences.
Behind the scenes
One last stop before we leave: a section dedicated to the artist’s process adds a special touch to the exhibition.
A behind-the-scenes video gives us insight into the slab-making and painting processes. Reproductions of sketches allow us a glimpse into the artist’s thoughts and nighttime dreams.
I was especially drawn to this sketch, which corresponds directly to Wang’s painting Nocturne Journeys No. 8. Here, he muses, “Stone comes from nature, being part of the mountains, growing among the wild grasses, within time … It reappears merely as an image or background, or as a figure that sets off a beautiful life. Something as heavy, serious, and profound as stone now only serves a recreational purpose.”
But maybe that’s not a bad thing. Clay, formed by nature and shaped by human hands — is much the same. Through artists’ creativity and skill, it becomes an art object, something that can become a fixture in our daily lives and bring small moments of joy amidst our everyday routines. In hectic Singapore, I think we could all use some more “recreation” in our lives — some quiet happy moments sparked by tiny tea cups and shiny paintings.
___________________________________
Future Is a Journey to the Past by Chinese artist Wang Xiaolin, curated by Lexing Zhang, runs at LOY Contemporary Art Gallery until 15 August 2024. Find out more at loygallery.com/wang-xiaolin.
Header image: Installation view of Future Is a Journey to the Past. Image courtesy of LOY Contemporary Art Gallery.
