Brian KAM KA Wai | Pottery Tutor
Pottery maker Brian Kam Ka Wai Brian met Steven through his work and became a member of the Pokfulam Village Conservation Group in 2009, which has now been running for over 14 years. In 2016, Brian started learning pottery and in 2017, he tried to connect with the villagers through pottery, making cups out of radish and inviting the villagers to draw pictures on them, making them tableware for the villagers to greet their friends or use for themselves during festivals. In 2022, Brian volunteered to help Pokfulam Village set up a pottery room at Pokfulam Farm and set up "Joy in Ceramics" with the villagers to develop pottery and work with the villagers as an artist-in-residence.
Please tell us about your relationship with Pokfulam Village.
My relationship with the village is like a fisherman weaving a net, one thread at a time. I may be a piece of thread or a knot, but there are many "fates and causes" intertwined in the process. On a personal level, my initial interest in building conservation and focus on community-led development has led me to try and bring my expertise as a surveyor into the community. More recently, with the establishment of the Clay Being project, I would like to encourage the villagers to develop community arts. Anything related to the community and the villagers that is within my capacity, I will do. Sometimes I wonder if I will stay here forever, but the answer is not for me to decide, it is for the villagers to decide if they want me to stay. The fact that I have had "something to do" for the last 14 years is the trust that the villagers have placed in me, and it is a testimony to me that I have become a member of the community that is the source of my happiness.
What are your main tasks at Clay Being?
"Clay Being" was founded in May 2022. Village aunties and other villagers can learn pottery in the studio, and I work as a team leader, focusing on how to give them the opportunity to develop their skills. The villagers in the studio must first learn to have fun, to stimulate them to develop their own interests, I only provide a platform and technical guidance. However, I certainly hope that the new skills they acquire will benefit their lives, their minds and their involvement in the community.
As a tutor, I can see that the village aunties are independent, self-motivated and creative, especially in skills such as pottery, which requires constant training and is relatively easy for them to learn with a strong sense of understanding and craftsmanship. Pottery is a craft that is easy to learn but difficult to master, and the village aunties who insist on practising pottery are not just "playing around". I am touched by the sight of the village aunties breaking through the bottleneck, for example, when they first learnt to pull a stick, they managed to find the centre point, open a hole in the middle of the clay and then happily took photographs of themselves.
How did Pokfulam Village influence your creativity?
In Pokfulam Village, the natural environment, the monuments, the cows and the villagers all inspire me to be more creative, and the most important thing for me in creating my artwork locally is the trust of the villagers and the unlimited freedom they give me! I started learning about pottery in 2016, and even though it's been seven years, I'm still considered a beginner in this field. The villagers are willing to learn with me as a junior teacher, and I'm very grateful that they take care of the pottery studio in Pokfulam, a place with excellent people and resources. Every weekend I share my skills with the villagers. My body has long been used to certain techniques and movements in my practice, but when it comes to passing on the art, I have had to go back to my starting point and reorganise myself, step by step, to get the hang of it, which has been a very rewarding experience for me.
What is the role of pottery in the development of the village?
Art is a medium for expressing feelings, which I experience a lot myself. I have always loved functionality and simplicity. After learning pottery, I came to understand the randomness of nature, that not everything can be controlled by man, and that randomness brings both surprises and failures. I have come to understand the value of the process and gradually I have learnt to accept and appreciate the unexpected and to value everything.
If the villagers have learnt something, they will be able to produce pottery with village characteristics in the future and develop the community economy, which is certainly very desirable, but what is more important is to nourish them through pottery, so that they can express themselves physically, mentally and spiritually, and enjoy the "me time", which is what I hope they can achieve at the moment. I am always thinking and remembering the meaning of "community art" and "art in the community". What is it that I am pursuing? In the same way, as a facilitator, I am using pottery as an engine today, hoping to pass on my skills to the villagers so that they can take on the important task of promoting pottery and community art in the future. However, one day this engine will grow old and lose its power, and if the pottery is not what the villagers need, then there is no need to pass it on. Fortunately, every week a group of enthusiastic villagers and volunteers come to the studio to learn from each other. Although we are still in the early stages of putting all these steps in place, as long as we are persistent we will be able to achieve great things.
What role do you think "craft" can play in this era?
I've recently become obsessed with ChatGPT and I love the way it answers some of my stupid questions. The idea of AI replacing humans has been around for a few decades now. Think about it, what kind of "craft" do people who design for a living use today? Very few people would pick up a pencil and draw on paper, slowly sketching and colouring. Who would do such an inefficient and costly practice? Today, ChatGPT has reached 4.0, you just need to say one word and it can (probably) add or subtract a design sketch and also explain the design concept in a clear and concise way.
At a time when we generally rely on AI in our everyday lives, the quest for "handmade" and "craft", as well as the quest for beauty, has also changed significantly. Where once it was so common for workers to develop their skills into their own craft in order to make a living, it has now become a luxury.
I enjoy the process of craftsmanship as it overlaps over the years. Maybe the pace of life is too fast for me, or as I get older I think it's good to slow down sometimes. Pottery is not only about the hands, it is also about the heart. If your heart is in turmoil when you are making pottery, the result that day is usually less favourable. On the contrary, if you do it with a calm heart, it will slowly guide your hands and make room for you to accept many more things, so you will naturally produce good works without thinking about anything else. In these days it is a desirable choice to use craft to purify our dirty minds and bodies. This is my approach to craft, regardless of the times.
What are your views and hopes for the development of pottery as a community art in Hong Kong?
There is nothing romantic about running a community. Let's be more realistic and solve all the difficulties in life before we talk about art! Take the village as an example, it is not easy to live a normal life. I know a villager who lives next to a canal, at the lowest point. Whenever there is a storm or rain, their houses are flooded, and sometimes the water is so high that people drown. However, this family is part of the village community and their work is often inspired by their feelings for the village. So I hope to teach the villagers other techniques besides natural dyeing to develop their unique community art. The main point is that I hope they will enjoy the process, have more room for creativity in their practice, and respond to problems with a smile and a positive attitude.