One Form, Three Futures
Jen-Chin (Anna) Tsui
One Form, Three Futures (detail) 2026
Stoneware
Cone 10 multiple glazes
Multiple pieces: 18 x 32 x 10 cm overall
About the Artwork
This work began with three almost identical wheel-thrown vessels based on a traditional vase form. Rather than treating the completed form as an endpoint, I compressed, cut, displaced, and reassembled each vessel by hand, allowing a single archetype to evolve into three distinct identities.
The process of deconstruction and reconstruction challenges the conventional expectation of symmetry, function and perfection in ceramics. By disrupting the original form and rebuilding it through intuitive making, the work explores transformation as a creative strategy. Each vessel retains traces of its shared origin while presenting a unique visual language. Together, the three forms suggest that within every established structure lies the potential for endless variation, reinvention, and new possibilities.
About the Artist
Jen-Chin (Anna) Tsui began her ceramics practice in 2020 in Brisbane. With a background in interior design, her work is informed by an interest in architecture, structure, and spatial relationships. Rather than adhering to traditional ceramic forms, Jen-Chin is drawn to experimentation, using clay as a medium to investigate transformation, construction, and form-making.
Her practice integrates contemporary design thinking with hand-built and wheel-thrown processes, seeking new possibilities within familiar forms. Through cutting, reconfiguring, and reconstructing, Jen-Chin explore how objects can evolve beyond their original identity.
In 2025, she began exhibiting through national awards and was honoured to be shortlisted for both the Siliceous Award and the Klytie Pate Ceramics Award. For her, ceramics is both a material practice and a means of expressing ideas through form, structure, and design.