TAN SHAO QI CV

Exposed to pottery-making at a young age, Tan Shao Qi works primarily with clay in her practice, but has also explored other mediums and techniques related to documentation, such as photography and papercutting.

Drawn to the tactile quality of clay in its most organic form, Tan seeks to find the best ways to emphasise the materiality of her forms, frequently experimenting with local clay and methods such as pit firing, saggar firing and wood firing. Her practice centres on the exploration of nature, and is concerned with drawing connections between humans and the environment in particular. Frequently casting a spotlight on local flora that tend to be routinely disregarded and overlooked, the recurring motifs of common weeds, wildflowers and wayside plants in her works highlight the unseen changes in the city’s natural environment, and offer a reflection on the ephemerality of nature in a landscape that seems to be constantly undergoing urban renewal and redevelopment.

Drawing inspiration from found fragments such as rocks, leaves and seeds, the artist seeks to record and make visible the intricate patterns, organic forms and myriad textures of nature. She often pushes the clay to make the most delicate and fragile of forms - a commentary on the evanescence of nature and our natural environs, which is much too often negatively impacted by human activity and at constant risk of erasure. Her current body of work investigates the fragile, yet enduring nature of porcelain, and is redefining the traditional sprigged decoration technique to create a fragile tension where the surface becomes the form – a reflection of the impermanence and fragility of nature in the urban landscape.