CONNECTING BANGKOK TO THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN
On view now at GalileOasis, “Tea Times: Tea Rhymes” displays over 300 tea bowls made by ceramist Panchalie Sathirasas. The various styles and sizes of the bowls were inspired by those used during a Japanese tea ceremony. “Some tea bowls were made 30 years ago, since I started making tea bowls. Some were made this year and they were carved to resemble tree trunks and rocks. The rim of these features squares or angles. My tea bowls look artistic and antique because I use several kinds of glaze which are mixed from rock, soil, ash and other materials. I went through several years of trial and error before successfully creating tea bowls with antique colours which people really appreciate,” said Panchalie.
“Tea bowls that are used as the container for whipping the matcha tea powder are bigger than the others. Aside from tea bowls, there are vases as well as ceramic dessert plates that look like rocks or tree bark.”
At “Tea Times: Tea Rhymes”, visitors can spend as much time as they like viewing and touching tea bowls and other objects.
“Many visitors repeatedly return to see my work. They told me that they had never seen ceramics like mine before. One Japanese woman held a ceramic bowl in her two hands and admired it, and then picked up another and did the same thing repeatedly to express her appreciation. Another visitor spent time caressing the ceramics from morning to evening every day. She eventually bought my work and became my friend. She appreciates my work and said my ceramics are offered at prices that are lower than they should be,” said Panchalie.
Her prices for the tea bowls range from 2,500 to 50,000 baht. “Thinner bowls are more difficult to make, so they usually sell at a higher price, but the price of my ceramics is not very high. Also, most ceramic exhibitions do not allow visitors to touch objects on display, but mine is different. I do worry the ceramics may be broken, but I want visitors, especially children, to touch them. A four-year-old child came to my exhibition and people worried that she might break something, but I asked her if she had ceramic bowls at her house and showed her how to hold the bowls with two hands. She really enjoyed it and later brought friends to see the exhibition,” Panchalie said.
A unique feature of “Tea Times: Tea Rhymes” is that Panchalie will be at the exhibition to make tea for visitors. They can relax and listen to the ceramist tell stories about the history of tea, tea bowls and the Japanese tea ceremony. When Elite Life visited the exhibition, Panchalie let us try various kinds of oolong tea. She told us that there are five kinds of tea — white, green, black, red and compressed.
“In the past, only emperors would drink white tea because it is made from buds or young leaves. Since buds are rare, white tea is very expensive. It also has an excellent fragrance. Green tea does not undergo fermentation, so it is natural and fresh. Black tea is completely fermented, so its leaves turn black. People enjoy drinking black tea with milk or sugar. Red tea is also fermented. Compressed tea looks like leaves that have been compressed into a brick or a block. It smells like grass and can keep for years. The longer it keeps, the more expensive it is,” Panchalie explained.
Panchalie graduated from the Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University. She worked at several media outlets before discovering her passion for making tea bowls after reading Thousand Cranes by Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata. The novel tells the story of a complicated affair between a man and a woman. The novel describes the emotions and sexual tension of these two characters through Japanese tea ceremonies and bowls.
“I was glued to the novel from dusk until dawn. One of the impressive scenes is where the two main characters sit down quietly and watch a tea bowl together while their hearts are full of desire for one another. Since I had never seen Japanese tea bowls, I wondered what they looked like. When I found photos of them in a bookstore, it dawned on me that I wanted to make tea bowls like that. It did not matter how long it took,” she said.
Panchalie started by studying ceramic foundation for a short period in British Columbia, Canada. However, after returning from Canada, she tried to improve her skills by practicing by herself, but the pottery wheels in Canada are different from in Thailand. She had a hard time centring the clay, which is a basic technique to shape a round object. She tried to learn from Thai masters, but most were not willing to share their techniques with her.
“One of the masters allowed me to see his demonstration of making ceramic only once. After I saw that technique, I kept practicing for two years until finally I could centre the clay. Tea pots are the most difficult ceramic object to make since they are in a very challenging form. Many cheap tea pots are not good for pouring water. Instead, they make the water drip,” Panchalie explained.
“I also visited Japan to learn with a master in Tokoname, where there is an ancient kiln. He allowed me to be an apprentice, but I could not imitate his style. The Japanese master would not value my work if I replicated his ceramics. I had to develop my own style,” she added.
Panchalie’s ceramics are described as having a rustic beauty that represents nature and unpretentiousness. They appear in distorted shapes with uneven edges and unusual textures. Her first exhibition attracted many media outlets who enthusiastically published her story. Since then, she had been invited to exhibit her work overseas. Between Mexico, Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan, Panchalie was especially impressed with Mexico.
“I was the first Thai ceramist to exhibit in Mexico. The exhibition was called ‘Art From Three Continents,’ which presented artists from Thailand, Mexico and Austria. Mexico had many excellent artists and one who co-exhibited with me earned much money from selling his work. He contributed the income to his local community. I really admired him,” said Panchalie.
“I demonstrated how to whip matcha tea powder to viewers who were excited about it. Mexican media were interested in me and my Eastern philosophy. My work was published in many Mexican newspapers. I was also on a popular art radio programme. I toured many places in Mexico and I found Mexican landscapes to be spectacular; the canyons were especially impressive. They inspired me to create many ceramics,” she said.
After creating ceramics for more than a decade, Panchalie discovered their content has never changed.
“Ceramic shapes have changed to become thinner and lighter, but the content is always about peace of mind. Making tea is relevant to Buddhism because monks make and whip tea to meditate. Thus, making ceramics involves having peace of mind. I also create ceramics to bring art into houses and routine life. I believe if children learn how to use ceramic pieces carefully, they will also learn to be concerned about other people’s feeling,” said Panchalie.
“Tea Times: Tea Rhymes” runs at GalileOasis, 2nd floor of Piccolo Vicolo Café, Wat Phraya Yang Alley, Ratchathewi, until Dec 25. For more information, visit @GalileOasis (Facebook and Instagram).