Artist: Tang Cheng 唐成 Material: Porcelain, Jun red glaze (钧红釉), applied gold lustre (彩金) Technique: High-temperature firing with gold lustre applied freely by hand.

Dimensions: 47×17×28 cm (L×W×H) Year: 2019 The ox is the second animal of the Chinese zodiac, and of all twelve it is the one associated with patient strength — the unhurried accumulation of good fortune. In classical rhetoric the ox is often paired with the mountain: both hold, both endure, both continue under weight.

Tang Cheng resolves the animal into simple geometric volumes. The head slopes gently forward; the back becomes a long, swelling ridge; the hooves land like punctuation. The curves have been reduced. What remains is mass.

The glaze is Jun red (钧红) — the deep oxblood first fired a thousand years ago in Henan, and still today among the hardest glazes for any potter to control. Across the red body, gold lustre has been applied freely by hand. Each piece's pattern is unique and cannot be reproduced. The gold pools at the hooves and horns, scatters across the flank, suggesting veins of ore running through red earth.