WEBVTT

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(upbeat music)

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

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telling me what to do.

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And I just submit to
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
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
the most gentle touch

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you put on it becomes
embedded into the material.

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It's just continuous
making layers upon layers.

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

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that I use is just scoring
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
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
skylight down to the floor.

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(soft music)

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There's a lot of urns
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
household and having adventures

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

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The Portuguese has built
a lot of cathedrals

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and there are a lot of
colonial style houses.

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I would spend a lot of time
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
business in all Manhattan.

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I became friends with the
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
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
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
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,
gives me a lot of like energy

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to create work both
for now and the future.

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

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'cause I want the actual
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
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
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
intensive, almost the most

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impractical thing you can
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
walks during the residency

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and that's kind of how the project

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at the catacomb
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
able to get to that state

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at the time that I could
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
grief is putting emotion

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into clay and really listening to it.

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It becomes something
familiar, something beautiful.

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(calm upbeat music)