“This is not a teapot”. So what is it then? A container whichlooks like a teapot, but which you can’t use for holding tea?

In Rene Magritte’s surrealist painting Ceci n’est pas unepipe, the pipe depicted in the painting combines with thename given to the painting to create a paradox for the viewer.This exhibition – “Ceci n’est pas une exposition de theieres”– is a kind of declaration. While “teapots” are the subjectof the exhibition, the absolute negation of “This is not ateapot” creates a transformation in the significance of theexhibition which requires interpretation. If it looks likea teapot but is not a teapot, then just what is it tryingto express? And what does it represent?

In this exhibition, teapots become a subject for discussion.

The widespread use of teapots and their long history area testimony to the important role they have played in thedevelopment of human lifestyles. With the passing of time,different cultures have developed different ways of creatingteapots, and different ways of interpreting them. Regardlessof whether or not the teapot is intended for practical use,and whether it is produced in the East or the West, the ceramistpresents different ideas and responses to the teapot, meldingor interlacing them together through the teapot within specificsocial context and its cultural tension. The basic form ofa teapot is like a person standing with one hand on theirhip and the other hand raised up in the air. Through the creationof the teapot, the ceramist gives a re-interpretation of thehuman body, making the “teapot-as-human being” a theme ofimmense interest. This kind of work is influenced by Westernhumanism, and by reflection on, and response to, human civilization.Through the manifestation of culture or sex, or through transformationof the shape of a particular part of the body, the ceramist’sideas with regard to these issues can be brought out in atiny teapot. The artist’s world of fantasy and limitless creationis waiting to be explored.

Tea-drinking has always been one of the symbols of Easternculture. To the West, the East symbolizes the mysterious andthe unknown. Despite the present trend towards globalization,the “conceptualization” of the East still seems to be unavoidable.This is one of the points which Said makes in his work onOrientalism: the East cannot represent itself; it has to undergoreproduction and interpretation. If one interprets the “ChineseTea Merchant” by Leslie Sims Roth (see Figure 1) from thisangle, one can see that in the artist’s presentation of aChinese tea-merchant preparing to drink tea there has beena deliberate use of flat presentation to emphasize the connectionbetween a “Chinese person” and “drinking tea”, and the wayin which this relationship has been conceptualized. Of course,this may encourage those of us living in the East to considerwhether we have a tendency to conceptualize the West and itscultural phenomena in a similar way.

In China, the emphasis in traditional Yi-xing teapots wason functionality; decoration was secondary. This combinationof functionality and aesthetic beauty was emphasized by theuse of a single color. However, as more and more people fromdifferent cultures went to Yi-xing to study teapot production,the stimulus provided by new ideas led to the creation ofteapots using different forms of presentation. Richard Notkin’s “Cooling Towers Teapots” (Figure 2) employs the simplicityand wit of the Yi-xing teapot, with its absence of glaze;at the same time, the teapot reflects Notkin’s oppositionto nuclear power and his pacifism. The way in which Chineseceramists carved objects from daily life on their teapotsseems to have influenced Notkin. The different types of nutscarved with such precision on the base of the teapot representthe political maneuverings of a bunch of crazed politicians,while the construction of nuclear power plants (the two coolingtowers) and deployment of nuclear missiles, with their abilityto cause massive destruction, are compared to gambling (thetwo dice), playing with people’s lives; Death is waiting undera mushroom cloud (the lid). What is going to pour out fromthe pile of waste containers at the spout of the teapot? Atthe same time, the Western appreciation of the beauty to befound in the broken, unadorned fragments of Greek templesand the Western emphasis on shape and proportion have helpedNotkin to find a simple beauty in the Yi-xing teapot. Likea black-and-white photograph, the beauty lies in the transformationof form. Thanks to this fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics,teapot creation gradually becomes divorced from functionality,leaving only form.

In the 1950s, the Ceramic Sculpture movement headed by PeterVoulkos used clay as a material for artistic creation. Newideas and new techniques were used in the search for a newkind of beauty and style unique to clay. At the same time,the status of pottery creation was raised from a handicraftto a form of art. Abstraction, compound materials, geometricforms and the exploration of new avenues of thought were allapplied to the creation of teapots. It was as though the basicblueprint for teapot creation was modified by the additionof new methods of design and new artistic concepts. With theuse of different forms, glazes and materials, along with theprojection of the artist’s own thinking, the emphasis is onthe “spirit” of the piece rather than on functional performance;the teapot becomes a theme for ceramic art. One of the earliestproponents of this new attitude to teapot creation was RichardShaw. His “Paint Box Teapot with Black Ink” (Figure 3) combinesa paintbox with various everyday objects to create a humorousteapot. Not only does this piece demonstrate the high levelof precision which the ceramist has achieved in the use ofclay, it creates a texture which could be mistaken for thereal thing and a form which deceives the eye. With these artisticteapots, what comes out from the white glaze is either thelimitless possibilities of art or else clear flowing tea.

Flowers and grasses, vegetables and fruits, and trees trunks.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Stones, frogs and birds.

In our daily lives, we are constantly encountering thingswhich move us. Artists’ experience of life, and their interpretationand transformation of it, stimulates our imagination, andallows us to pass beyond the borders of reality into the realmsof fantasy. It is a teapot; it is an object. It is life; itis a declaration. In the process of piecing together, conversionand integration, different messages, thoughts and emotionsare transmitted. Although David Furman’s “Room Service” (Figure4) appears to represent a pile of fruit, on another levelit represents desire and the interconnection between desireand eating and drinking. These elements have been piled uptogether to create a teapot which brings home to the viewerthe importance of the key elements in life.

We are living in an era of constant interchange between differentcultures. This international teapot exhibition is not intendedto reach any kind of conclusion. Rather, the aim is that,by presenting various types of teapot, issues can be raisedfor discussion and exploration, examining the fundamentalnature of art and handicrafts from different angles. The exhibitionis thus a retrospective on what has been achieved in thisrespect in different parts of the world, while also providinga starting point for future development.