Ceramics: clay and kiln

Ceramics are made by shaping raw material and then firing it at high temperature in a kiln; firing is what sets the form and gives it hardness and heat resistance. Earthenware is clay fired at a lower temperature and stays porous, taking in water. Porcelain, made from kaolin and similar materials, is fired to about 1,200–1,400 °C and comes out dense, low in permeability, and usually white and translucent. A glaze is a glassy coating: in the kiln it melts, fuses to the clay body, and makes the piece less able to hold water. Overglaze decoration is painted on top of a glaze that has already been fired, and needs a second firing at a lower temperature to fuse with it. The kiln is not only a last step, it takes part in the making. In the shows at the New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum from October 2026 to January 2027, Yang Yixue lets porcelain cubes sag and shift under gravity and kiln fire; Wang Yiting sets what happens inside a kiln, where clay, feldspar and glaze melt, crystallize and crack, beside the way fossils form; and Tang Rong incises, glazes, and paints over the glaze to echo ink landscape painting.

Look at the surface: where is the glassy shine of the glaze, and where does bare clay show? Then look for signs the kiln fire pulled or pressed the form, such as dents and cracks.

• Ceramics 도자→Same topic in Seoul