My name is Wu Haoyu, and I’m a teacher in the Department of Ceramic Design of Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University
I have a studio in Guangxi
I found ceramic art when I was going to graduate from the university, which made me really excited
I told my father that I wanted to do ceramic art
He asked me what ceramic art was and encouraged me to do it
‘Even if you don’t manage to become an artist, just come back home and I will support you’
It was a pity that my father left me the next year
The strength that my father gave me supported me to fulfill the promise that I had made to him
Ceramic production contains a number of procedures
Unlike Jingdezhen, Guangxi had inadequate transportation
I visited several places which were over 90km away from Nanning
I used local clay
I ground it, stirred into mud and filtered it naturally
Then I had the best material for producing ceramics
I prepared the glaze, formed the shape, trimmed the shape, glazed and bisque fired it
Gradually I reached self-sufficiency
I set a principle for my handmade pieces, and that is utility is beauty
They seem heavy with dark colors
But they are actually light in weight
You will slow down your moves
I think that’s the essence of making tea
After I graduated from my postgraduate program
I started to think about changing my way of creating ceramics
After the creation of the series Xiehou, I found that improvisation might suit me well
I drew randomly on paper
The spatial changes made by crisscrossed lines were very striking
I focused on the Xiehou series for three years from 2008 to 2011
Then I really wanted to make a change
One day at noon, I was in Jingdezhen, feeling a little tipsy
I found a rock on my way, and I put it on the turntable and stared at it for a long time
I hadn’t become sober yet and I felt there should be a sharp string piercing into it
I didn’t sketch
I just prayed some water on the rock and began to create with clay
The result surprised me
I have a series in which a rock is combined with another thing
I hid something in the rock, and I pulled, distorted and squeezed it
Just as people in life
The thing still looked full of vitality however it was squeezed
Later I used paper
The symbol of culture
To imply that human have an infinite variety of ideas
It could open a hard rock easily
However, some huge works such as Xinshiqi cannot be presented with clay
At the end of 2020, I began to create with metal
Po|Li was created by accident
I wrongly set the temperature higher and the piece collapsed
It was heartbreaking to see it at the first sight
But when I moved it to the small yard of my studio
I found its profile had a beauty which couldn’t be created with human hands
Later I deliberately raised the temperature
To turn a complete piece into a collapsed shape
The collapse is like human life. No destruction, no construction.
It gave me a new perspective to understand life
Probably because of the influence that my father gave me
I have been maintaining a pure state of mind over the past decade
I rented the studio in 2014
Now the two-story building is divided into two parts
One is the art gallery and the other is the exhibition hall of handmade works
They are connected by a bridge, which symbols the transition from spirit to material
I often travel between Beijing and Nanning
My child is still very young and I feel guilty of him
Now my life isn’t as unstrained as it used to be
I feel the responsibility
If I give him a lump of clay, he can play it for probably a whole afternoon
It occurs to me that the passion for earth might be a natural part of being human
Because we come from earth and we will end in earth