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(upbeat music)

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- [Heidi] Sometimes I[br]feel like it's the clay

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telling me what to do.

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And I just submit to[br]this very cruel mistress.

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(suspenseful music)

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It really feels like I am the medium.

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Something passes through me or[br]my hands directed by the clay.

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Instead of me sculpting it,

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it's like it's sculpting me back.

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(Heidi laughing)

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It's like a conduit for spirits.

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My name is Heidi Lau and I'm a sculptor

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and I work primarily in clay.

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(birds chirping)

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Working in clay, literally[br]the most gentle touch

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you put on it becomes[br]embedded into the material.

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It's just continuous[br]making layers upon layers.

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Everything I've learned I just taught[br]myself. I think the only technique

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that I use is just scoring[br]the clay, putting slip on it

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and then attaching the work.

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The hands are probably one of the

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(Heidi laughs)

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longest running elements

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in my work.

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I will never cast a real hand

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you know, they kind of all like

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ghostly and they're elongated,

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to signify that it doesn't[br]come from this world.

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Yeah, so this is a preliminary sketch

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for my project at the catacomb

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and so this is the arch.

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The piece would hang from the[br]skylight down to the floor.

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(soft music)

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There's a lot of urns[br]with drapery on top.

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It's kind of a symbol for mourning

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and I've been wanting to capture that.

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(calm music)

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I grew up in Macau,

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my childhood oscillates between

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very strict Chinese parenting

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and also me escaping my[br]household and having adventures

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in lot of ruins while it was[br]still a colony of Portugal.

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The Portuguese has built[br]a lot of cathedrals

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and there are a lot of[br]colonial style houses.

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I would spend a lot of time[br]wandering into the structures.

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I'm trying to capture that essence

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of structures you could get lost into.

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(soft music)

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(bell ringing)

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(car hoots)

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- Hi

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- [Heidi] Wing on Wo is a ceramic store

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in Chinatown and it's actually one

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of the oldest running[br]business in all Manhattan.

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I became friends with the[br]owner Mei, five years ago.

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As soon as I stepped into the store,

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it just felt so familiar to me

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'cause I had grew up in a[br]very similar environment.

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I see Chinese diaspora quite similar

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to the way I see how Mei runs her store.

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Rethinking how ceramics[br]could be interpreted,

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or reintroduced to contemporary times.

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If I could close my eyes,

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I could even see like the books[br]my grandpa had on the shelf

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like his garden.

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While it's looking in the past,

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it's also kind of like,[br]gives me a lot of like energy

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to create work both[br]for now and the future.

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And that's why I want to[br]bring you this to like

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'cause I want the actual[br]elements to kind of reference.

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(calm music)

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I started thinking about using clay

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to make a burial garment[br]after my mom passed away.

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As a way to grieve,

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I began to look at a lot of burial objects

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from Han and Qin dynasty

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and also watching a lot[br]of Chinese zombie movies.

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(Heidi laughs)

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(suspenseful music)

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It feels right to grieve with my hands

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doing this very labor[br]intensive, almost the most

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impractical thing you can[br]think of to do with clay.

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The labor of it equals grieving.

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(calm music)

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(birds chirping)

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I started taking very long[br]walks during the residency

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and that's kind of how the project

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at the catacomb[br]started taking shape slowly

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through this aimless, meditative walks.

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It's a daily exercise for myself to empty

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out my own ego when I am[br]able to get to that state

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at the time that I could[br]access this ancestral plane

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and find my way on the other side.

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(calm music)

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(chains clink)

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- Got it.

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(coins clink)

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- I see my work kind of as,

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touch points between very opposing ideas

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between human and spiritual unknown.

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(calm upbeat music)

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I feel like at the core

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of me making work about[br]grief is putting emotion

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into clay and really listening to it.

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It becomes something[br]familiar, something beautiful.

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(calm upbeat music)