Earth and Fire

A Dual Exhibition of Wood Sculpture by Jiang Xinyu and Ceramics by Du Qinfen

Wood is born of the earth and raised within the mountains and forests, its grain carrying the traces of time through the marks of the axe and chisel.

Ceramics emerge from clay and are shaped through flame, their forms crystallized through the transformations of the kiln.

Two materials, two distinct languages, yet within the space of Yuan Museum, they enter into a quiet and profound dialogue.

Jiang Xinyu’s wood embodies a return downward, back to origin. Born into a family of tree farmers in Hunan, his childhood experiences chopping firewood in the mountains became the primal impulse behind his practice. He refuses to treat wood as a material to be fully controlled; instead, he follows its natural form while simultaneously resisting it. This negotiation between human and wood—the compromise and confrontation between the two—lies at the core of his work. With each strike of the axe, an inner spirit is revealed. Jiang is drawn to the raw force with which tree farmers in Africa and Southeast Asia strip bark with axes, and equally reveres the devotion of the Japanese monk Enkū, who spent his life carving thousands of Buddhist figures. In Jiang Xinyu’s hands, wood sculpture is not refined craftsmanship, but an instinctive act of splitting, cutting, sawing, and grinding—a physical process in which movement and thought become inseparable. His works are coarse, candid, and untamed, as though they have just emerged from the forest, still carrying the force of the axe and the lingering warmth of sap.

Du Qinfen’s ceramics represent an upward movement of growth. Her Microcosm Series transforms microscopic structures—pollen, seeds, cellular textures, and plant veins visible only under magnification—into soaring and interwoven sculptural forms. Through an innovative evolution of traditional slab-building techniques, hand-stretched clay sheets are grafted, layered, and bonded together, generating structures that proliferate like cellular division. Dehua porcelain clay, Yixing purple clay, and Jingdezhen kaolin are layered across the surfaces in multiple slips, then repeatedly fired with Song- and Yuan-inspired colored clays and hand-polished using techniques derived from Chinese lacquer craftsmanship. The resulting works reveal vivid cellular coloration alongside tensions of fusion and separation. Emerging from the soil of Lingnan, these forms possess both the intricate precision of the microscopic world and the poetic resonance of traditional Chinese painting. Du Qinfen allows clay to “burn” with the force of life itself; every texture bears the marks of growth and resistance.

Wood and ceramics: one subtracts through the force of the axe, while the other accumulates through layers of clay. One follows the grain of wood through compromise and confrontation; the other undergoes fusion and transformation within kiln fire. Yet both artists return to a fundamental state of being. Jiang Xinyu returns to the pure labor of chopping wood to make fire in his childhood, while Du Qinfen returns to the vital energy contained within the instant of cellular division. Their works are not imitations of nature, but acts of breathing together with the materials themselves.

The exhibition takes its title, Earth and Fire, from the distinct yet parallel paths these two artists pursue: both begin with materials born of the earth—wood and clay—and, through different forces—the axe and the flame—arrive at the same sincerity: a respect for material, a devotion to labor, and an expression of life’s inherent tension. As the warmth of wood encounters the hardness of porcelain within a shared space, and the marks of carving mirror the layered accumulation of clay, what emerges is not merely a dialogue between materials, but a resonance between two artistic attitudes: a return to authenticity and a form of untamed growth.

Yuan Museum is honored to present this dialogue between wood and ceramics, and invites viewers into the worlds of Jiang Xinyu and Du Qinfen—to encounter, between splitting and melting, the forces that dwell deep within the earth and deep within the flame.

Yuan Museum

2026

大地与火

——蒋心雨木雕·杜沁芬陶瓷双个展

木，生于大地，长于山林，在斧凿间诉说时间的纹理。

陶瓷，取于泥土，成于烈焰，在窑变中凝结生长的形态。

两种材质，两种语言，却在Yuan museum的空间里展开一场静默而深切的对话。

蒋心雨的木，是一种向下的回归。他来自湖南的树农家族，童年山上砍柴的经历成为他创作的原始动力。他不愿将木视为需要被驯服的材料，而是顺着木头的形展开，同时与它对抗——人与木之间的相互妥协，正是作品的核心。斧头一刀下去，内在的精神便显露出来。他迷恋非洲、东南亚树农用斧头去掉白皮的粗野感，也敬仰日本僧人圆空一生雕刻万尊佛像的虔诚。在蒋心雨手中，木雕不是精致的工艺，而是一种回到生存本能的劈、切、锯、磨——从运动到思考，都在里面进行。他的作品粗粝、坦诚、野性，仿佛刚从山林中走来，还带着斧头的力度与树液的余温。

杜沁芬的陶，是一种向上的生长。《微观系列》将显微镜下才能看见的花粉种子细胞纹理、植物脉络，转化为腾空交错的立体形态。她将传统泥片成型方法创新演进，手工拉伸的泥片通过嫁接、堆叠、黏结，组合成如细胞分裂般生长蔓延的造型。德化白瓷、宜兴紫砂、景德镇高岭土——多层泥浆在表面涂刷，再以宋元色泥叠烧与中国大漆磨显工艺手工打磨，最终呈现出细胞鲜活的色彩与融合、分离的张力。这些作品从岭南大地的泥土中迸发出淬炼的力量，既有微观世界的精密质感，又有传统绘画的意象表达。杜沁芬让泥土“燃烧”出生命的力量，每一道肌理都是生长与对抗的痕迹。

木与陶瓷，一个靠斧头做减法，一个用泥片做加法；一个顺着木纹妥协与对抗，一个在窑火中融合与蜕变。但他们都回到了最本源的状态：蒋心雨回到儿时为生火而砍柴的纯粹劳作，杜沁芬回到细胞分裂瞬间的蓬勃生机。他们的作品不是对自然的模仿，而是与材料本身的共同呼吸。

本次展览以“大地与火”为名，正是因为这两位艺术家分别从大地（木与土）出发，经由不同的力量（斧与火），抵达了同一种真诚——对材料的尊重，对劳作的热爱，对生命张力的表达。当木的温润与瓷的坚硬在同一空间相遇，当斧凿的痕迹与泥片的堆叠相互映照，我们看到的不仅是两种材质的对话，更是两种创作态度的共鸣：回归本真，野性生长。

Yuan museum 荣幸呈现这场木与陶瓷的对话，邀请您走进蒋心雨与杜沁芬的世界——在劈与熔之间，感受大地深处与火焰深处的力量。

Yuan museum

2026年