Shifei Zhang

Ceramics, rich in historical and symbolic meaning, serve not merely as passive vessels but as active participants in constructing personal and collective narratives. This degree project explores ceramics as a storytelling medium, investigating how objects can express cultural identity, memory, and emotion through interactions between tangible form and intangible experience.

In the final work, Zhanny’s Wish, ceramic objects are crafted as archival documents referencing my parents’ wedding in 1990s China, embodying memories linked to marriage traditions and family rituals. These ceramics highlight tensions between clarity and ambiguity. By presenting objects as pseudo-archives, the artwork questions the authenticity and fluidity of memory, inviting viewers to actively reconstruct narratives based on personal perceptions and imagination. Rather than documenting the past directly, the work examines how narratives can be reshaped and experienced anew, bridging material presence with immaterial memory, and allowing visitors to navigate their own pathways of understanding and interpretation.