[English version in below]
昏睡了幾天，體力完全恢復，終於可以聊聊這次展覽 ⟨ 交迭 Interweaving: From Kiln to Cup ⟩ 與Natsu Yamamoto（SOKA’AN 宗夏庵）的合作過程。
年初Natsu來訪高雄，提出委託製作茶具，並在她的茶室舉辦我的作品展的想法時，我心裡暗暗為此而興奮，同時也很佩服她將這個具挑戰性的任務交給我的勇氣。雖然日本茶具一直是我最喜歡觀賞的陶藝作品，我的茶道經驗卻很少。作為一個外行人，Natsu的信任是莫大的鼓勵，也是這次展覽創作的動力所在。
在討論展覽標題時，我提出了 As it is （有原樣、如實的意思）這個展覽名字。儘管最終採取了策展方的建議展名，但as it is的精神貫穿了這次展覽。順其自然、接納事情的原樣，是我在陶藝中學到的事，它關乎控制及放手，而我覺得Natsu似乎經由茶道通透了這一點。
製作日本茶道具是我一直以來都很想嘗試的事，也因為它帶領我回到作陶的起點。我跟母親學作陶時，她一開始就教我用圈泥條和手捏的方式作茶碗，藉由書籍介紹許多重要的日本陶藝家，以及各種不同形制的茶碗。我開始拉坯之後就很久沒在做手捏了，而Natsu委託的手塑茶碗，帶我回到那段剛開始作陶的時光。當我看這件作品時，我感到有點遲疑，但過了一段時間，我終於可以看到這件作品的本來面目了。
非常感謝Natsu Yamamoto邀請我參與這個展覽計畫，並在心中將它當作自己做陶第十年的里程碑。對我來說，這是她的精神和我的雙手的交迭，也是與柴窯、電窯的協作，最後交到將這些器皿帶回家，並在日常生活中使用的你們手中。
Finally regained energy to write about the creative process with my dear collaborator Natsu Yamamoto in our exhibition project ⟨ 交迭 Interweaving: From Kiln to Cup ⟩..
Early this year, when Yamamoto Natsu (tea instructor and owner of Soka’an) visited me in Kaohsiung and proposed her idea of a commissioned tea utensils and holding an exhibition of my works at her teahouse, I was silently excited with her idea and at the same time admired her courage of trusting this challenging task to me. Although Japanese tea utensils have always been my favorite things to look at, I had little experience with tea ceremonies. Being an outsider in tea, Natsu’s trust was such an encouragement, and is also the essence in the ceramics collection this time.
When we were discussing exhibition titles, I came up with the name ‘As it is.’ Although we took the advice from our curator, the spirit of this title never left me during the making of the collection. Taking things as they are is the one very thing that a person learns when making ceramics, it is about control and letting go, and I feel that Natsu understood that through her way of tea.
This project has become a passion project to me, in which I was able to revisit where I began. I learned to make ceramics from my mother, who taught me to make tea bowls right from the start. She taught by using coiling and pinch-pot techniques, introduced me to important Japanese ceramists and many different forms of tea bowls in her book collections. I had stopped making hand-built ceramics for a long time since I started working on a wheel, but Natsu’s commissioned hand-built tea bowl brought me back to that period of time. As I looked at this piece, I was feeling a bit unsure of the final result, but after spending some time looking at it, I felt that I could finally start to see the piece as it is.
I am very thankful to Natsu Yamamoto for inviting me to be in this project, which I secretly consider a milestone in my tenth year of making ceramics. To me, it is an interweave of the spirit of hers and my hands. It is a project in collaboration with the kilns, and finally, you, who brought the utensils home to use in daily lives.
⟨ 交迭 Interweaving: From Kiln to Cup ⟩
翁宜襄茶道具展 Yvonne Weng’s Tea Utensil Exhibition
茶の湯 SOKA’AN Tea Ceremony | By Reservation
展覽日期 | 2023.12.2–12.15
展出空間 | 宗夏庵 SOKA’AN