Ray van Nes
The platinum / palladium print exhibition Yixing Teapots, by Calgary photographer Ray van Nes, stemmed from a small-scale still life project involving a baker's dozen of Chinese terracotta tea pots, a Shu Dynasty inspired teacup, as well as a Moose Jaw teapot called Love Monster.
Part of Exposure Festival 2024.
Dragon Teapot #5, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Bamboo Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Bamboo Teapot #2, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Basket Teapot #2, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Celadon Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Coin And Ingot Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Shu Dynasty Prince Teacup, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Love Monster Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Henry Moore Teapot #3, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Person Character Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Plum Blossom Teapot #3, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Prince Gong, Gazing At The Moon Teapot #3, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Rabbit Hair Glaze Teapot, 2023, platinum / palladium print, 4.5 x 6.5 inches (11.5 x 16.5 cm), unframed $300.00 Cdn or framed (metal) $450.00 Cdn.
Yixing Teapots
Part of Exposure Festival 2024.
The exhibition Yixing Teapots, by Calgary photographer Ray van Nes, stemmed from a small-scale still life project involving a baker's dozen of Chinese terracotta tea pots, a Shu Dynasty inspired teacup, as well as a Moose Jaw teapot called Love Monster.
Depictions of everyday items are wonderful windows into the past and present. Using a platinum / palladium print process, the photographer has imbued these material objects with life, glorifying their form, meaning, and charm. The images recognize the value of mindful contemplation while going about the simple rhythms of familiar tasks.
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In an area of southern Jiangsu Province by Lake Tai (not far from Shanghai) during the Song Dynasty - 10th C. AD - the local clay was used to make small teapots for use with the strong oolong type teas. They were sold in the vicinity of the Golden Sands Temple in Yixing, which was popular with scholars and those studying for the bureaucrat exams. The types of teapots we think of today as typical of Yixing came to prominence during the Zhengde Emperor’s reign during the Ming Dynasty, with an ever-increasing variety of designs and forms. There are a few exceptions to the Yixing teapots in the series, one is a lidded teacup that comes from the San Xing Dui Museum in Guanghan Sichuan, in the form of one of the ancient shu dynasty bronzes of the head of an ancient local king (ca. 360 BC). It is, however, made of the same clay as traditional Yixing pottery. There is a rabbit hair glaze porcelain teapot from Beijing, and a celadon glaze teapot from Jingdezhen. Finally, there is the love monster teapot made in Moose Jar (Saskatchewan) of similar clay to Yixing by a local potter who studied in China.
““Last winter , I did a little still life project of our terracotta Chinese tea pots. About a baker’s dozen. There is one tea pot which is not Chinese but terracotta and a tea cup which is from the Shu Dynasty ( museum shop) which is not a tea pot. I made small prints in a process known as platinum/palladium. I have incorporated my chop into the image.””
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Back in the early 90s , Ray exhibited 5x7 palladium prints at the City of Calgary Archives. That body of work is now in the National Architectural Archives at U of C. Remnants was another project, involving images of early 20th century industrial architecture in Turner Valley, Medalta (Medicine Hat, Alberta) and Claybank (Saskatchewan), where he used enlarged negatives, mostly 11 x 15 in. with some 16 x 20 or bigger. The series was exhibited at the Royal Alberta Museum and the Art Gallery of Calgary. One of the artist’s Sandstone Series images is part of the Billboards Project by the City of Calgary's Civic Art Collection.