A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF SHIWAN

There are places that seem predestined to witness the development of a specific production, of an industry, of an art, and whose history is inseparably linked to that activity. If in the immense Chinese territory we find numerous artistic expressions supported by the most disparate materials, such as silk or porcelain, the name of Shi Wan is certainly, from time immemorial, unmistakingly linked to the working of clay.

In fact, archaeological excavations begun in the decade of 50, allowed the discovery in the neighborhood of Shi Wan, of clay objects whose origins date back to the Neolithic, demonstrating that the industry of clay is present in the region since then. Shiwan is located on the outskirts of Foshan, in the province of Guangdong. It is known , at least since the Tang dynasty, that this region, namely the city of Guangzhou, was in contact with inner China through intense trade, in which Shiwan ceramics played a fundamental role from the beginning. It was highly appreciated, already during the Tang and Song dynasties, by foreigners from the South of Asia, Middle East and, later, Europe. Maybe this demand accounts for the extraordinary growth of this industry, as well as for its endurance until today whilst other ceramics industries in other locations in China fell into decay and disappeared. It was precisely in the sequence of an intense trade with the outside, made easier by road and river access, that Shiwan's ceramics industry reached a remarkable flourishing level during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

During the last two dynasties the ceramics art of Shiwan knew its greatest technical and artistic evolution. Apart from developing a unique style, Shiwan artisans specialised also in copying styles from other regions of China with the purpose of diversifying their offer and face the growing demand. This fact is at the root of some confusion among collectors who are often convinced of having a piece from another tradition when in fact that piece comes from Shiwan. On the other hand, the copy of ceramic styles from other centres of production lead the artists of Shiwan to enrich their technical expertise with consequences on their own productions. In truth, specialists commonly consider that Shiwan ceramics, as it is known to us today, started only after the Ming dynasty.

One of the distinctive aspect of Shiwan's ceramics regarding other Chinese clay industries is the down to earth fact that a great part of its production has indeed a functional purpose going beyond the merely artistic aspects. Nowadays, for instance, Shiwan's earthenware workshops are mainly geared towards producing daily wear objects and only seldom to pieces of purely artistic contents. In this sense, the direct commissioning to specific sculptors was rather important, such as those by the Portuguese Manuel da Silva Mendes among which are the finest examples of the collection of the former Luis de Camões Museum ( currently the Macau Museum of Art). There we may enjoy the art of Shiwan in its full splendour, namely in the statues whose motifs range from Chinese mithology to the representation of Southern Chinese folk types such as woodcutters, fishermen, farmers, etc.. Chinese authors, in their turn, consider this form of art was enjoyed in greater scale by foreigners rather then by the Chinese themselves, namely those wealthy enough to be collectors. The fact that its origin is in the South has probably contributed to that situation. After all, Manuel da Silva Mendes, among others, were, to the extent they ordered specific works to Shiwan's artists stimulating them to create, responsible for the revitalising of the industry and even for the discovery of new expressive contents.

Another trait of Shiwan's ceramics is a certain esthetical intervention of the artists even on the objects meant for a concrete use; this may be one of the keys of its success. These clay pieces testify to the existence of an artistic tradition spanning centuries, and alternative to a mostly rural surrounding universe, in which the transmission of knowledge is more important than the emerging of an individual, something that took place only sporadically. Shiwan's production is characterised not by the individual production but by a continuos flux of objects, a veritable art of popular characteristics. It is, who knows, this reality that induces the felling, upon contemplating the works, of a great unity and a strong sense of identity. Despite having been created by generations of artists traversing rather different and turbulent epochs, Shiwan's works reached over the historical convulsions and the industry that bore them survived the troubled periods that China went through in the last five centuries of its History.