Studio: Steal the Plane 偷飞机去 Series: “Occupation”

Material: Porcelain, underglaze Qinghua cobalt, lead-free overglaze transfer

Dimensions: Height 20cm, foot 6cm, opening 3.3cm The Tianqiuping, the celestial globe vase, is among the most distinctive silhouettes in Chinese porcelain. A full, spherical body rises from a flat base into a slender cylindrical neck. The form originated in the Ming Dynasty imperial kilns and has been produced in Jingdezhen ever since. Its name comes from its resemblance to a globe held aloft.

This vessel takes that iconic silhouette and saturates it in yellow. Not the pale, restrained yellow of scholarly porcelain, but an assertive, radiant yellow that fills the room before you reach the object. Across the entire surface, Occupation marks in black and charcoal scatter at every angle, creating a pattern that is simultaneously chaotic and rhythmic. There is no Qinghua beneath, no traditional motif to disrupt. The Occupation mark is the only content. The gesture has become the subject.

Like all pieces in the Long-Life Design collection, this vase begins as a factory-rejected ceramic vessel from Jingdezhen, reclaimed and transformed through Tian Wei's hand. The yellow ground and the scale of the piece elevate it far beyond the intimate register of the other Long-Life works. This is not a quiet object. It is a statement piece that holds its own against contemporary sculpture, design furniture, and large-scale floral arrangements with equal confidence.

The narrow neck accepts a single dramatic stem or a loose, sculptural arrangement. When empty, it needs nothing.