Face Mask

Porcelain works exploring wellness culture, care, and the body. Exhibited at Collect Fair, Somerset House, 2026.

Face Mask is a series of porcelain works developed during a 2024 residency at MenLo Studio in Jingdezhen, China. The works are based on the form of cosmetic sheet masks, objects I used regularly while living there, and were also influenced by the number of people I saw wearing face coverings to protect their skin from the sun. Each piece is titled using the language of skincare, such as Hydration, Repair, or Brightening. Made from porcelain tiles that were CNC-cut and then glazed and fired, the works reflect both the city’s long history of ceramic production and its present-day systems of making. In Jingdezhen, there are many “faces” involved in the production of ceramics, one person produces the clay, another forms the tiles, others develop glazes, operate CNC machines, or fire the kilns. The process is collaborative, with artists working across a network of small studios and local artisans who each specialise in one stage. In some factories I visited, hand-carved porcelain vessels were being made alongside sandblasted designs, with similar forms produced at different price points. This coexistence of handwork and industrial technique reflects a broader fusion of traditional skills and contemporary technologies within an ancient material. While I usually hand-build my work, this approach allowed me to work more indirectly, combining outsourced processes with my own hand in designing shapes, glazing and finishing.

The series includes two approaches to form. A small number of works are designed as recessed masks carved into the surface of porcelain tiles, allowing glaze to pool and gather within the carved areas. These pieces are influenced by historic hand-carved porcelain vessels I encountered in Jingdezhen, particularly incised decoration from the Song Dynasty. The remaining works are fully cut-out mask forms. Using a range of glazes, the surfaces hold depth and subtle variation. The series looks at how ideas of care and self-improvement are shaped by wellness culture. The soft, disposable face mask is translated into porcelain, becoming fixed, fragile, and permanent. These works also connect to a longer history of collecting masks from different cultures, and to the way we now travel for wellness, bringing home products and rituals that promise transformation. Made in Jingdezhen, a city built on ceramic production, the work reflects on the value of labour and the differences between temporary access and long-term livelihood. Face Mask brings these ideas together through a simple, familiar form, where the surface of the object becomes a stand-in for the body itself.