Teapot & Lid - Heja Chong, Bizenware, 1995

Search the collections

Summary:: Teapot made by Heja Chong, circa 1995. Heja is a Bizenware potter born in Japan of Korean parents. Bizenware represents the oldest surviving form of pottery, with a tradition extending over 1000 years in Japan. The emphasis of this style is in the process of firing, where unglazed pottery is fired in a wood fired kiln for many days at a high temperature. This teapot was fired in the first chamber of Heja's kiln and was placed on a shelf where not much ash falls.
Description:: Teapot with a very simple design, narrow, angular and elegant. It is constructed in a slab technique, fired in Bizen tradition. The teapot stands squarely on its base, its sides curving slightly at the top. Its spout juts out at a steep angle from the body and the handle curves around from just under the lid to the base. The teapot is the colour of red earth and is marked with the effects of the firing process.

Discipline:	History
Dimensions:	175 mm (Height), 70 mm (Width), 180 mm (Length)

Tagged with:	artworks, crafts, cultural traditions, domestic equipment, food drink consumption, handcrafts, japanese communities, japanese culture, pottery
Themes this item is part of:	Immigration & Artistic Practice Collection, Cultural Diversity Collection, Domestic & Community Life Collection, Migration Collection, Identity: Yours, Mine, Ours, Immigration Museum Exhibition, 2011-2021
Primary Classification:	CULTURAL IDENTITY
Secondary Classification:	Ethnicity - Creative Practice
Tertiary Classification:	ceramics
Artist:	Heja Chong, Cottles Bridge, Victoria, Australia, 1995
References:	Contemporary Craft and Cultural Identity Project, by Deborah Tout- Smith and Anna Malgorzewicz for MoV and Monash University History Dept, 1992.