During my art residency in South Africa, I learned pottery from local artists using natural soils from Cape Town. Surrounding me daily were rocks, forests, animals, and the spiritual sharing of local artists. The most important lesson I learned was to follow my intuition.

One of the most representative forms of African pottery is the mask, which signifies their deities, as well as their resilience and national spirit.

My mask represents the hidden true self. The light only shines through the eyes, while the black surface conceals the face. Viewed directly, it is FEAR — my fear; viewed in reverse, it is TEAR — my tears, which arise from the fatigue and helplessness brought on by repeated fear.

During my time in Africa, I got sick, mainly due to local electricity issues that led me to wash with cold water multiple times, resulting in an unfinished piece that I couldn't glaze. My instructor fired the half-finished work and handed it to me. Initially, I planned to discard it, but I walked to a nearby hardware store and bought a Sharpie. I wrote down the most poignant experiences I had in Africa over those 21 days on this white clay, like a diary — a too-long-didn’t-read summary. Surprisingly, it caught the attention of South Africans at the exhibition, who sat by the table to read it.

Langa is a township in Cape Town where a studio is working to preserve and promote crafts, aiming to improve the lives of local residents and develop a sustainable economic system using their traditional skills, connecting them with society.

In the pottery room there, I met a few children and introduced them to Cantonese pop songs. They started dancing to the music, while another African artist began to hand-shape clay. We took turns creating and processing, following our instincts, and invited the children to join in. They became naturally joyful when they touched the clay, and so did I.

In the end, another local artist applied the glaze, resulting in a piece that embodied the interweaving of many people and many souls at that moment.