Caroline CHIU: Coo Cups ♡ Hong Kong

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Gallery EXIT is pleased to present ‘Coo Cups ♡ Hong Kong’, the first solo exhibition of Caroline CHIU at the gallery. It will showcase more than 230 uniquely made porcelain cups in the form of installation. The exhibition will open on Saturday 11 June, and will run till 9 July, 2022.

‘Coo Cups’ is a project Chiu started in 2018 as an artistic exploration of the art form and material of porcelain vessels. The cups are available in limited numbers, each unique and hand-painted by Chiu. The series was first launched in ‘Shek-O Sublime’, a group exhibition at Gallery EXIT curated by Chiu in the same year. Chiu has been an avid collector of contemporary art and crafts for many years, while also practising as an artist and curator. Through the project, a symbol of her personal resilience during the past few years, Chiu wishes to express her love for Hong Kong and the art community.

Chiu has been longing for a cup with a perfect shape that could fit the user’s hand without the presence of a handle, lip or saucer. To make the perfect cup she desires, she travelled to Jingdezhen, the birthplace of Chinese porcelain, and discovered a workshop that specialises in making luxury ceramic ware. Several prototypes were tested before finalising the perfect shape, and the cups are made of clay and underglaze, processed with the highest of standards, using some of the fairest and smoothest clays. In order to achieve the cups’ uniform circular shape and durability, each cup underwent three firings, with both the interior and exterior being glaze-fired separately at an exceptionally high temperature of 1,300°C.

The cups displayed in the exhibition is a new series Chiu has been developing since 2019. Compared to the 2018 series where the cups were painted solely in strokes of blue shades, this time the cups contain a variety of colours and calligraphy strokes in circles, dashes, and expressive lines inspired by the vibrancy of Hong Kong. The colours are painted with underglaze with the same recipes as those of traditional Chinese blue and white porcelain.

Each cup is unique yet they project a sense of communal energy when displayed as a harmonious collection. The cups will be presented as an installation together with hand-crafted wooden shelving specifically made for the exhibition display, creating a continuous line along the wall space in the gallery. Sections of the shelving come with each set of cups as part of a collection. The grouping of the cups on the shelves are arranged by the artist Hilarie HON, a close collaborator of Chiu’s since the beginning of the Coo Cups project. Ceramics have always been an important artistic exploration for Hon, ​​who is best known for her works in oil.

The concept of Coo Cups also pays homage to Marcel Duchamp’s iconic ready-made sculpture Fountain, where an everyday object is turned into art when placed on a pedestal in a museum. In the case of Coo Cups, a functional drinking vessel for tea and coffee becomes at the same time a piece of art when displayed on the shelf. Chiu has turned an ordinary household item that is mass-produced into a unique piece of art that is functional, blurring the boundary between art and crafts.

With Coo Cups, Chiu continues her exploration of what making and living with art as an experience can mean.