Porous Presences

This work assembles ceramic objects sourced from second-hand shops across the UK. Originally embedded in diverse domestic and cultural contexts, these objects have been displaced, their functions suspended and identities unsettled. As a Chinese artist living abroad, I recognise in them a condition of marginal visibility—present, yet never fully belonging. Each piece is lightly encased in lampworked glass, whose transparency suggests boundaries while refusing enclosure. In my practice, glass becomes a material expression of the Daoist concept of Wu (non-being): not absence, but a generative, open state of potential. Within this installation, even British ceramics become “othered,” destabilised by cultural drift and estranged from their origins. Through the coexistence of ceramics and glass, the work reflects on displacement, fragile identity, and the ambiguous spaces formed between cultures. It seeks to reveal how materials can hold—and expose—the complex negotiations of belonging in a globalised context.