Ceramicist Gerald Mak tells touching tales in carved clay

Since the arrival of covid-19, one of the struggles of our ‘new normal’ is the absence of human touch: whether that’s missing hugs from friends, or awkwardly avoiding handshakes. In this touch-starved context, the work of Gerald Mak – a London-based ceramic artist from Hong Kong – takes on a particular poignancy. His 2019 series titled Desire for Communication and Relationships spans carved porcelain pieces and embossed paper, both of which feature stylised hands reaching out to grasp, caress or hold.

‘I began this series before the coronavirus hit, but now it’s taken on another layer of meaning. I started looking into hand gestures as a form of communication in relation to the political unrest that’s happening back home in Hong Kong,’ he explains. ‘Protesters invented hand signals to use on the frontlines: one gesture means “Please supply goggles”, another means “Send masks”, and so on.’ From these political beginnings, his delicate designs conjure up ideas of communication and care, whether as reliefs carved into the surface of a ceramic pot or pressed into thick paper.

The tactile pieces formed part of Mak’s degree show for his masters in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art – an exhibition that was forced to become digital only. In what must have been a heartening vote of confidence, Magdalene Odundo, the doyenne of ceramic art, selected Mak’s work as part of her curated edit of the RCA’s graduates. Also included in his graduate show was Hats! – a surreal series of hand-modelled porcelain, stoneware and bone china sculptures inspired by western misrepresentations of East Asians in the 17th and 18th century. ‘I was looking at Meissen and Sèvres figurines, in which many Chinese people were depicted wearing exotic headgear – even hats made from cabbage leaves,’ says Mak. ‘I’m interested in how we think about otherness.’ The Hong Kong-born, London gallerist Peter Ting bought Hats! for his own collection. ‘He’s been very supportive,’ the artist adds.

While on an RCA-organised ceramics residency in Jingdezhen in China at the end of 2019, Mak explored this notion of otherness in a different fashion: drawing and painting scenes of local life that struck him as funny or touching, rendered in a playful, graphic style. Stylistically, Mak drew on two disparate sources: chinoiserie, that European fantasy of a Chinese aesthetic, and the meme character Pepe the Frog. This unexpected hybrid resulted in fantastical scenes of human-like frogs frolicking among traditional Chinese buildings.

‘In the US, Pepe has been seen as a rightwing figure, whereas in Hong Kong he’s just a funny, sad frog who has become a mascot for the protestors,’ explains Mak. He also took inspiration from the platters by the Huguenot potter Bernard Palissy, which are ‘full of amazing snakes and other creatures’. His plan was to handroll ceramic tiles, then decorate these with decals of his drawings, but lockdown has prevented him from accessing the college’s ceramics studio. Instead, Mak commissioned printed earthenware tiles from a manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent. The series is titled Travelogue: From Jingdezhen to London Lockdown – a nod to the diary-like aspect of his topsy-turvy scenes.

Mak’s trip to China’s capital of porcelain was a momentous experience in other ways. ‘Being in Jingdezhen opened my eyes as to the possibilities of what can be made. There are skills there I’ve not seen anywhere else.’ Working with a family-owned tile factory, he was able to create at a scale that had previously been too daunting. He made a triptych of large, rectangular panels, each featuring those familiar hands. ‘They are all hand-rolled yet still super-flat – it’s a spectacular feat. In one workshop they could have 10 men hand-rolling a four-metre-wide panel.’

The expense incurred if these precious panels cracked meant Mak relied on a professional carver to incise his designs, while he focused on less high-risk vessels. ‘I carve when the clay is past leather-hard and almost dry. The porcelain clay there is so nice that I kept them unglazed, to celebrate the subtle colours of the material.’

Several of these vessels will be on sale through Sarah Myerscough Gallery (from 13 November) as part of her Crafted Collectables series, and his work will also be on show in Future Edit, an online and physical exhibition of graduate talent at the new Crafts Council Gallery. For now, Mak – like so many of us – is in limbo, his pieces stored with friends at Rochester Square studios, waiting to see how the pandemic unfolds before he makes his next move. And his future plans? ‘I’m thinking of returning to Hong Kong, then I would like to go back to Jingdezhen to work on commissions. People there can throw pots that are four or five metres high. I can’t wait to make a carved piece of that height one day.’