Artist Statement

Ray Chan See-kwong

In the work “Clay Con Moto”, Ray explores the dance quality in clay itself by making various forms and textures through the clay's own movement during shrinkage, existed free from the manipulations of hands. Ray attempts to take a literal approach of a quote by the then American ceramic artist Stephen De Staebler about his making process saying that clay "has an inner instinct for form," and that "what I have tried to do for a long time is find out what the clay wants to do."

Ray Chan See-kwong

Ray received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Cambridge, U.K., studying mathematics. He subsequently obtained his BA (Fine Art) and MFA degrees from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (co-presented with the Hong Kong Art School) in 2002 and 2007 respectively.

Having studied mathematics in university, trained as a counter-tenor and practised actuary before making ceramics, it prompted Ray to look at clay and materials differently. He is always interested in looking for new possibilities in clay making by adopting experimental approaches and collaborating with different disciplines. Recently, he collaborated with dementia patients in the art project “On Your Seat, On Your Mind” by the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 2019. He also worked with the local residents of a Hakka village in the government Art in Situ project “Hi! Hill” in 2018 and collaborated with the dance group “PassoverDance” in various art education programmes and performances in 2017, etc.

Ray is a part-time lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Hong Kong Art School and he is currently the Chairman of the Contemporary Ceramic Society (H.K.).