[Video] Living in the moment: Two Singaporean artists finding home in Jingdezhen

(Photos by Lu Lingming unless otherwise stated.)

In Jiangxi province’s Jingdezhen, Ken Lu has spent 15 years building a three-storey studio, a family and a life. In the same city, Nelson Lim moves through invited residencies, returning each year before leaving again. Both are Singaporean ceramists who have made China’s porcelain capital a fixed point in their work. They have arrived at the same place by very different routes.

Building a life from clay

Ken arrived in 2011 for his undergraduate studies, met his wife, and after finishing graduate school in the US, returned to build his career. His Homily Ceramics Studio, set in what he calls a remote and unassuming part of the city, now functions as a workspace, teaching centre and communal hub.

His work is widely shown in local galleries and boutiques, and he has built a reputation as both a respected teacher and a commercially successful artist in a competitive field.

Stability has come at a cost. “The more time I spend in the studio, the less time I have to spend with my kid,” Ken says, in a pattern that mirrors the one his own father set. He says he sometimes wishes he could step back from the studio and drift a little, like Nelson. Maybe take his family out more often to explore the world.

A practice in motion

His large-scale Construction of Memories installation at the local museum is built from recurring cross-shaped structures, a visual language he has carried across continents. He describes himself as someone who lives in the moment, a philosophy shaped long before he ever set foot in Jingdezhen.

Yet Singapore remains present in both their lives, though in different ways. Nelson speaks with pride of being a “Singaporean artist”, and each year brings fellow ceramists from Singapore to Jingdezhen, sharing the city that has shaped his practice. In his studio, he even moulds small Merlion figures — tokens of home that he gifts or sells in local markets.

For Ken, the identity is more complicated, almost unresolved. Though Singaporean by citizenship, the cadence of his life has long been shaped by China, in how he works, speaks and moves, through each day. His family, studio and craft are all anchored there, and over time, what began as life abroad has blurred into something that feels like belonging.

Two paths, one place. This is how they live in the moment.

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