China’s Twenty-Four Solar Terms are a knowledge system of time management and practices developed based on ancient people’s observations of the sun’s annual motion. It became the 31st Chinese item inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on Nov 30.Solar Terms have been the subject of paintings, poems, fairy tales and folk songs, among other forms of art and literature. 

A year ago, Beijing-based artist Dong Lin began a project to “carve out and fire” Solar Terms. The 25-year-old adopted “zhan jing pan”, a form of creating potted landscape started in Han Dynasty; she molded ceramic mountains, trees and animals, and arranged them in a big pottery pot or plate to present a landscape corresponding to a specific natural phenomenon of Solar Terms.

She completed the first six works of Solar Terms series: Insects Awakening, Grain Rain, End of Heat, Autumnal Equinox, Cold Dew and Light Snow. They are now shown at Soka Art Center, Beijing, being the latest project of the gallery’s Soka Lab, an experimental initiate to promote young artists. 

Dong rented a workbench at a ceramic-production factory in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province to create these works. She applied glossy glaze of different colors to indicate changing landscapes of each season. Red tones suggest the heat of summer, yellow indicates the harvest of autumn, and sliver symbolizes the arrival of winter.

Dong graduated from the sculpture department of Central Academy of Fine Arts last year. She is now pursuing a master’s degree at the same department. She learned Chinese classical painting at 7 and since then, she has been practicing ink art and calligraphy. Therefore, her creation revolve around Chinese cultural traditions.Also on show at Soka are her other ceramic works inspired by stories from Chu Ci, The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars and fairy tales.