Slabs, Sheets, Shards: A Ceramics Exhibition

Curatorial Text

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Clay embodies the age-old tension between nature and nurture. The exhibition, Slabs, Sheets, Shards,

explores this binary, tracing how each of the four ceramics artists draws out the clay’s natural

memories and transforms them into new shapes and identities.

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The art of Nick Ng closely represents nature as the main element in ceramics. His chosen name, 土人

, literally “earth man” and more broadly “native,” speaks to both his medium and his way of being—

grounded in clay and marked by a tranquil attentiveness to the impression of the earth. Unglazed and

touched by fire, his works reveal the clay’s raw characteristics with some echoing the charred skin of

bark, while others unveil buried memories of a soil terrain, thus blurring the lines between the man-

made and the natural.

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In comparison, Shane Ng’s undulating sheets bend clay towards sensorial fluidity. His practice expands

the conventional boundaries of the medium, nurturing clay into soft, draped forms that defy its usually

solid state. These textile-like ceramics capture motion in stillness, like fabric caught in the wind,

inhabiting another space while remaining grounded within its cast setting.

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In a reversal of processes, Ben Loong begins not with earth, but with a human-made material weighted

with histories of industrialisation and consumerism: bone china. Through reshaping and firing, Loong

reveals the organic weather patterns embedded within, as intricate cracks along the pristine white

porcelain, like desiccation cracks in earth, guide these industrial creations back to their elemental

origins. Highlighting nature’s persistent presence within human-made systems, Loong reconnects his

audiences with darkened earth as a reminder of man’s intrinsic bond to the natural world.

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Saya Yamaguchi’s artworks return the viewer to a more directly environmental realm, balancing

traditional Japanese pottery techniques with a deeply personal expression. Inspired by seascapes, her

works reflect dappled light on water intermingling with a colourful coral seabed, each piece capturing

a unique array of oceanic colours and the iridescent quality of the sea, brought out by the ephemeral

character of clay and guided into vision through Yamaguchi’s refined technique. This delicate balance

between tradition and individuality reveals how nature and nurture intertwine in ceramics craftwork.

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Together, these artists present collaborative and challenging aspects to slabs, sheets and shards. In

their hands, the flat pieces become a mirror, not only of light and remembrance, but also of processes,

personalities and instincts, inviting intimate dialogues with the wider world.