I Have Often Seen,

photographs of droplets of liquids,

that have been taken the moment the drop hits the ground,

 but these for some reason looked different,

 the three photographs above from the China Design Centre, by Phoebe Guo, the four photographs below courtesy of Bian Xiaodong,

 so what is going on?

 Chinese artist Bian Xiaodong’s glossy ceramics resemble falling droplets, however their inverted forms drip upwards rather than down, and that is what fooled me, 

 the artist crafts his gravity-defying artworks from kaolin clay derived from Jingdezhen, a part of east China’s Jiangxi Province known for its history of crafting porcelain, after adding the clay to silicone moulds, Bian turns the pieces upside down and lets the natural flow of the clay create a unique shape, in the high-temperature firing process, this ultra-thin clay body further morphs into different forms, once his ceramics are formed, the artist paints them,

to view more of Bian’s raindrop-like artworks, visit the China Design Centre’s online gallery, upside down rain drops, who would have thought it?