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

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

Dimensions: Height 42cm, mouth 8.5cm, foot 11cm The Meiping is one of the oldest and most celebrated vessel forms in Chinese ceramic history. Its name, "plum vase," refers to its original use as a container for a single branch of plum blossom, though for centuries it has also served to store wine and spirits. The proportions are unmistakable: a narrow mouth opening onto broad, powerful shoulders that taper to a stable foot. It is a form that communicates authority through silhouette alone.

This Meiping stands forty-two centimetres tall, making it the largest work in the Occupation series. Beneath the yellow Occupation marks, Qinghua dragons coil through clouds and waves across the full height of the vessel. The dragon motif is rendered in the classical imperial register: five-clawed, muscular, surrounded by auspicious cloud scrolls and turbulent seas. Banded borders of ruyi heads, key fret, and lotus panels structure the composition vertically, following the conventions established by Jingdezhen's imperial kilns.

The yellow marks are not incidental. Imperial yellow was the exclusive colour of the Qing court. No subject of the empire could possess a yellow vessel. The dragon, too, belonged to the emperor. To mark a dragon vase in yellow is to occupy the occupier, to claim sovereignty over the very symbol of sovereignty. It is the most loaded colour choice Tian Wei could have made, and he made it without hesitation.

This is not a decorative object pretending to be art. It is an art object that happens to take the form of something ancient and functional. It can hold wine. It can hold a single branch. It can hold a room.