A response to an old chinese teapot on one level, but also to the myths and western perception of China through its export ware on another. The duality between Britain's romantic notion of an mysterious exotic east and the political reality first evinced in the 18th and 19th centuries is a theme that is still relevant to today.

A misconception of the traditional rice pattern bowls is that they were fired with rice in the body; they were actually incised. I kneaded rice into porcelain and threw a set of cups on the wheel. The rice created difficulties and uncontrollable results in the making, and exploded out in the firing.

Hints of the dragon and phoenix chasing the pearl motif were enamelled onto the cups, conveying the elusiveness of 'truth', as if the action is happening just out of sight.