Message from Timea:
“The impending Holiday Season gives me an opportunity to reflect on our first year and a half as a non-profit studio with education and research mission in the area of digitally aided ceramics.
I am deeply grateful for the the wonderful people, exciting projects and tantalizing possibilities I personally had the chance to encounter through Slip Rabbit, especially for our amazingly talented student interns who have many times provided the kindling for the fleeting sparks of wild ideas.
This year, as I prepare the holiday meals, I am thinking of each and every one of you with whom I have had the good fortune to share tea, snacks and good conversations during those long workdays in the studio and who now are out in the world, continuing to push all of us toward a more equitable and humanistic future that considers both hand and technology, tradition and innovation.
Below is a feature about one of alumna, Huiqing Wang, written by current Slip Rabbit communications intern, Nick Wu.”
At Slip Rabbit, a lot of things have to come together for our ceramic pieces to be created—from 3D printers to math equations to files of code—but, perhaps the most important element of all was the creativity and hard work of our numerous interns. Over the next few posts, we want to showcase some of these interns—past and present—and give our audience the chance to learn more about their talents, aspirations and experiences.
Huiqing Wang is also a recent graduate from the University of Washington, where she studied Interdisciplinary Art. Also, like Annabelle, she spent two quarters at Slip Rabbit, where she furthered developed her skills with clay. Huiqing has long been a devoted artist in ceramics, specializing in creating figurative sculptures that are capable of conveying so much within simplicity.
What is an example of something you’re passionate about?
I am passionate about making figurative sculptures with ceramics. The particular contact between my body with such material is actually the content of a certain work. What I am creating is also what I was and I am going to be.
What ceramics intrigues me about is that sculpture that after firing out of kiln become to be the individual that on longer controlled by me or others, instead, it exists in the nature on its own.
How do you find inspiration when you need to be creative?
I am convinced that the best inspiration comes from the things that beyond expectation. When I urge to be creative, I will break through my routines and try something that fresh, challengeable or even “dangerous”.
And I like to find inspiration from my previous experience, artworks, diaries and etc. I also have a notebook for writing down my improvisational ideas and sketch for later reviewing.
What made you want to intern at Slip Rabbit?
There was still a lot of things I want to learn from Timea after I graduated from UW. Also, I needed a place to take more practices in ceramics, sculpture and interdisciplinary art, such as the digital printing that combining my major with technology.
At that time when I was leaving university, I noticed that I must try unknown things, open my mind and find my focus in artistic creation.
What is something that you learned during your time at Slip Rabbit?
“Working all the time.”
We would work continuously until my last bus arrived in the evening. I understood that we never lack of ideas, but time and consistence to realize them.
“Being logical and having fun.”
Art requires both sensibility and rationality, extreme caution and entertainment.
What was the favorite or most memorable thing you worked on at Slip Rabbit?
Here come a lot of lovely memories in my mind, and hardly saying which one is the most favorite. Specifically, there was always radio music accompanying us while we were working, delicious and delicate Hungarian snacks made by Timea, drinks with “homemade” cups, and the vigilant sniff from her kitten upstairs, and the smell of lavender.
Are there any other creative ventures you have done since?
I went back to China and interned in a Bronze Foundry for six months this year. My initial intention was to connect with my country but it turned out that I was alone in this way since all my peers who have studied art abroad did not choose to come back to China. Although it was not a great place for creating art, especially when people around me were not supportive or receptive, I learned to strengthen my willpower through protecting my principles from being assimilated.
I am working on application for graduate school in China currently. I see my action as a creative venture, because the whole process of preparation for it is extremely examination-oriented and I possibly will get stuck in this mire. I want to experience the contradiction and struggles that millions of Chinese students are experiencing, but with a certain autonomy.
Are there any creative ventures that you want to explore in the future?
I want to bike to Tibet after surviving this year.
Even after a brief interview, it’s clear that Huiqing Wang is someone who exudes passion and creativity, something that is so rewardingly evident in her creations. Her hard work, curious mind, generosity and tenacity make her one of Slip Rabbit’s most memorable interns.
