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Introduction：Ceramic artist Huang Chun-kui (1962- ) was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Without graduating from junior high school, he worked as a construction laborer. In his spare time at work, his colleagues goad the team in making lion-head masks for the temple dance. Huang Chun-kui's work amazed the crowd; his clay models gave a whole new look to the lion dance around Shilin district. After the construction workload decreased, Huang Chun-kui devoted himself to art. He started with an electric kiln to create ceramics, and then slowly learned the changes of clay material and adapted to the more difficult wood-fired kiln for his creation.
Differed from the electric kiln, the wood-fired technique requires mastery in the fire. The ash glazes on the resulted ceramic are wood-fired kiln's most remarkable quality. With his passion for ceramics, Huang Chun-kui built the largest wood-fired kiln in Taipei on Yangming mountain near his residence. Wood-fired ceramics requires a great deal of physical strength and endurance. It takes up to four days and three nights to heat up and fire to the right level. The artist needs to keep fueling the fire of 1,230 degree Celsius in order to maintain a constant and appropritate temperature. The fire leaves a naturally occurring glaze on the ceramic when the ashes fall on the work after burning and melting.
The burned ashes are incredibly light. The fires are everchanging. Likewise, the ceramic color appears warm and varied. The iron in the wood ash fuses with the iron in the pottery billets to create different tints of glaze. The uneven thickness of the glaze leaves traces of the flame on the art. With his mastery in fire and art, Huang Chun-kui clever techniques resulted in pieces of ceramic with beautiful lines and delicate texture. The ash glaze of this work falls quietly on the pottery. It follows the everchanging color and surface, presenting the same modesty as the artist himself.

Accession Number:CR09400100