The art, craft, and manufacture of ceramics remain a continuing tradition in Southeast Asia. Precolonial relations between our islands and Mainland China thrived for several centuries and are manifested tangibly in the trade ware that figure in our cultural history. Chinaware and Southeast Asian ceramics have long been the attraction in several museum exhibitions and are much sought after in private collections
The Ring of Fire: The First Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival will assemble recent works by several contemporary ceramic artists from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines. The festival also brings together the contemporary practitioners who find expression in the art and technology of pottery. The exhibition, along with the planned interaction series with the artists, will reveal a range of forms and techniques that have developed in their countries and communities and the shared heritage that linked and enlivened Asian culture and social dynamics in history.
In line with the 2009 theme of “periphery” for the Zero-in exhibition series, this exhibition pays homage to the ring or network of artists who produce and create new works that invigorate and continue the tradition and art of ceramics in the twenty-first century. To complete the circle and saga of the art form and inter-island interaction and to give a historical perspective to contemporary ceramics, Ayala Museum will also showcase its permanent display of Chinese and Southeast Asian trade ceramics in the exhibition A Millennium of Contact as part of the 2009 Zero-in exhibition series.
The Ring of Fire: The First Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival is organized and convened by artist Hadrian Mendoza, who has exhibited extensively in contemporary ceramics exhibitions both locally and internationally, and is represented in museum collections in the Philippines, Korea, Japan, China, and Washington DC. The exhibition will be open to the public beginning 21 September 2009 and will run until 4 October 2009.
