An evolving archive documenting material transformation, speculative geology and artistic research.
Ji Fan
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London · planned09 Artist / Info
About
Fan Ji (b.1997), is an award-winning artist and a member of International Academy of Ceramics. She completed her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2022. She chose to be a creative practitioner in the field of ceramic art because of her passion in making as well as the idea of combining contemporary issues with traditional techniques. She has recently been awarded the 2nd Prize for Boundless, III Edition of Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Award, and GCB Prize for Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale. Her recent exhibitions include: Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea; Now & Then: Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show, Edinburgh, UK; Thrown Contemporary Winter Exhibition 23/24, London, UK; 瞬间与永恒 (A Moment for Eternity) - China Contemporary Ceramics Invitational Exhibition, Qingdao, China; V. International Ceramics Triennial UNICUM 2023, National Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
As both a craftswoman and a contemporary artist, Fan’s practice explores the subtle imprints of nature, environmental narratives, and material metaphors, often in relation to questions about interactions and manipulations, which she uses to discuss the relationships between humans and the environment we inhabit.
Fan’s practice is studio based and she works for exhibitions and commissions. She has ambitions to work in larger scale through residencies and to expand her research to communities and other public spheres.
CV
Professional Memberships
Member, International Academy of Ceramics
Education
MA, Ceramics & Glass, Royal College of Art, London
Ceramics, Tokyo University of Art (Summer School), Japan
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa College of Art (Exchange Programme), Japan
BA, Ceramic Art, Academy of Art and Design, Tsinghua University, China
Selected Exhibitions
3rd Edition of Secret Ceramics, Sotheby’s London, UK
IAC International Academy of Ceramics New Members Exhibition, Jingdezhen, China
A Movable Feast, curated by Cathy Wills, London, UK
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, UK
C14 Paris, Paris, France
British Ceramic Biennale, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
Ceramic Future - The Techno-aesthetic Reinterpretations of Ceramics, Beijing, China
Momentum, Galleria Objets, London, UK
Summer Craft Collection 2025, New Ashgate Gallery, UK
Today’s Forest: Breathing and Symbiosis, Jinxi Art Museum, Jingdezhen, China
Rising Stars 2025, New Ashgate Gallery, UK
Guangzhou Contemporary Art Fair, Guangzhou, China
Boundless, Zhi Art Space, Wuhan, China
ArtWorks Open 2024, Barbican Art Group Trust, London, UK
And The Earth Echoes (大地之息), Dual Show, Shenzhen, China
Ubiquitous Technology: The Science of Aesthetics, London, UK
Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
Shiwan Cup’s 12th Annual International Youth Ceramics Competition, Guangdong, China
Now & Then: Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show, Edinburgh, UK
Splendid Craft Art Fair, Guangzhou, China
Boundless, the III Edition of Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Award, Hangzhou, China
Thrown Contemporary Winter Exhibition 23/24, London, UK
Bath Open Art Prize 2023, Bath, UK
瞬间与永恒 (A Moment for Eternity) - China Contemporary Ceramics Invitational Exhibition, Haitian View&Art, Qingdao, China
V. International Ceramics Triennial UNICUM 2023, National Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Royal College of Art Degree Show, London, UK
Summoning, Safehouse 1, London, UK
Melting Point, Home of Preston Fitzgerald, London, UK
“Radikal zeitgemäß” Exhibition on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Bauhaus Movement, Dessau, Germany
Awards
National Lottery Project Grant, Arts Council England
CreateCOP29, shortlist
Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale, GCB Prize
99 Future Blue Chip Artist 2024
Boundless, the III Edition of Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Award, 2nd Prize
V. International Ceramics Triennial UNICUM 2023, Slovenia, finalist
Bath Open Art Prize 2023, highly commended
Rosalind Stracey Ceramic Award, UK, finalist
Publications
Fan Ji: Narratives in Ceramics, reviews by Jun Wang for Blanc de Chine online magazine
Moss on The Move, China Ceramic Artist, 68(2), pp52-53
Earth Nidus: An unnatural nature, Garland Magazine, Issue G29, 12/2022
Collections
Touchable Scenes by China Asset Management Co., Ltd.
End, begin by Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Art Award Committee
Sentimental representations of natural phenomena are a central topic in the Earth Nidus series. They not only extract and represent aspects of an unseen nature but also explore the visual possibilities of a mutated human world and its regeneration. My obsessiveness toward nature is driven by Object-Oriented Ontology, which rejects the privileging of human existence over the existence of nonhuman objects and makes distinct claims about the nature and equality of object relations. By incorporating different materials into one integrated object, my practice echoes this equality, as they have been employed for the creative process no matter where they come from—nature or an industrial factory.
I utilized commonly found industrial metals such as copper, iron, aluminum, and quartz, mixing them with clay and employing an unconventional firing method that deviates from the typical ceramics process of bisque and glaze firing. Instead, I construct geochemical events occurring over millennia through firing, accelerating the transformation of materials. This approach blurs the boundaries between the natural and the artificial, as well as the agency involved in manipulation.
This series adopts anti-craft approaches that prioritise material agency and reduce human intervention to a minimum. The work brings clay into contact with industrial materials, including metal mesh, toxic metal oxides and flock fibres. This clay–metal assemblage undergoes multiple firings, each stage intensifying their reactions. Across both making and firing, clay acts as a co-agent, documenting the shifts, tensions and movements that emerge from these encounters.
The notion of “oscillation” is central to this project. It describes the continual back-and-forth between collapse and formation that unfolds within the kiln: some metal melts while other fragments remain intact where they are shielded by the clay; the clay shrinks, and surfaces crack open and re-fuse. These shifts produce forms that sit between geological residue and industrial debris, revealing how materials negotiate their own boundaries beyond direct human control. The interior cavities, fractured skins and metallic ruptures are not imposed compositions but traces of these oscillating forces. Through this process, this series of work explores how material behaviour can perform over human intention, proposing a way of making shaped as much by contingency as by choice.
Work
01 Details
02 Process
03 Materials
04 Size
This photo was taken in Royal Leamington Spa, where the central lawn bears vast rectangular imprints—silent traces of human ambition, boldly inscribed upon the earth, as if to claim every inch of nature for use.
The film Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018) has been a significant source of inspiration for my project Earth Nidus, both visually and conceptually. In this film, uncertainty and mutation are the true themes of this alienated world. While uncertainty reflects a human-centred anxiety towards the unknown, mutation represents a fundamental logic of the world itself—one that is self-assured, non-anthropocentric, and inherently resistant to control. In this sense, mutation may be the only certainty in this ever-shifting ecology.
Ivy weaves up the London plane,
shielding as it strangles.
A tender violence.
In nature, symbiosis and parasitism often share a skin—
which are we,
in our bond with the earth:
companions, or intruders?
The spontaneous gesture of clay.
Soft, slow,
It captures something we’ve forgotten.
