Jeannie Mah Artist Statement

“I find it harder every day to live up to my blue china.” - Oscar Wilde

While studying Chinese ceramics in European museums, a small but acrobatic side-step led me to a love of European porcelain, which then introduced me to the history of Chinese export ware and European Chinoiserie.

Having never ‘returned’ to China, I travel towards the East by way of English bone china. By isolating two figures in landscape on a Royal Crown Derby Blue Mikado dinner plate, I cheekily attempt to reverse the process of immigration. I usurp an Asian identity by inserting my Canadian-born southern Chinese face into a Japanese scene as imagined by 19th Century potters in Derby, England. By taking a British colonial detour, I study china without going to China. I play dress-up within English china to reclaim a (mistaken) Chinese identity, et voilà! I “am” Blue Mikado!

Since the Age of Discovery and the ensuing mania for Chinese porcelain, European and Chinese manufacturers have copied each other, often inaccurately, to satisfy a prestigious and lucrative world trade. The travelling of ideas, iconography and technology can be seen in the history of porcelain, making explicit the geographical meanderings of material culture, via trade routes of land and sea.

Through reiteration, repetition and reflection, I try to make visible the travelling of an idea, as it is copied and re-imagined. As a photo of fa Blue Mikado plate fades out, pencil traces of a ghost plate remain, framing my porcelain cup within the ténèbres of the dinner plate. My face as Blue Mikado, seen again on the adjacent wall in extreme close-up, throws a knowing look towards the audience, and a backward glance at history and consumption.