Wee Hong Ling’s ceramic pieces may be fired in the kiln of her passion for the art, but it is her devotion to family that glazes each piece with meaning.

And while loyalty to one may seem betrayal of the other, the ceramic artist appears able to harness the passion and devotion in shaping her work.

Wee, 43, had never expected to become an artist.

“I didn’t consider myself a creative or artistic person so it’s really ironic that I fell into this (ceramic art),” the four-time Singapore Internationale arts grant recipient says when I meet her on the sidelines of her first solo exhibition in Singapore.

She adds that her parents were always telling her “don’t waste your time on the arts; focus on maths, science, and the languages”.

So Wee excelled in her studies, eventually earning a doctorate in Geography from Rutgers University in the United States.

Accidental artist

But the mould for her life cracked when she was “forced” by a friend to join a ceramics arts course while at Rutgers.

“This experience shifted what I thought of myself and what I could do. At the start it was really hard because I had never experienced making something before. But it didn’t matter because the important thing was the experience,” she says.

She loved learning, gaining the skills and what she calls the “vocabulary” of ceramic making. So much so that she decided to become a full-time ceramic artist.

Asked why she made such a drastic decision, she says: “I’m not someone who waits for ‘one day’ or ‘someday’. I believe in seizing the opportunity when it presents itself and doing it.

“It’s based on irrational passion,” she adds with a laugh.

“Why wait? I wanted to give the best times of my life, the best years that I have to this thing I love so much.”

And giving her best years has resulted in Wee’s work being displayed around the world, from New York to Japan to Australia.

Sacrifice

There was, and still is, a high price to pay though.

Wee has spent almost two decades away from Singapore, most of it studying, but given the chance to return to Singapore after finishing her studies, she felt she had to stay in New York if she were to further her ceramic dreams.

“The sacrifice for me is time away from my family,” she admits.

"After all, 19 years is a long time ... I have missed the births of all four of my nephews and nieces. So every time I see them, they are much bigger. I feel that there are gaps in my memory of their growth.

“And I miss spending time with my mother. This is the sacrifice I had to make.”

Her closeness to her family is reflected in the title of her exhibition in Singapore: No Place Like Home.

“Everything is my own experience. Whatever I make, it resonates in me; it reminds me and links me back to my culture, family, heritage and upbringing.”

Her mother, however, belongs to “a generation where stability is highly prized” and she had felt that “there is absolutely no stability in this profession”.

Still, Wee soldiered on, saying: “I have spent the first part of my life fulfilling my parents’ expectations, so I am going to live the second half of my life fulfilling my own expectations.”

So she carries on doing what she’s passionate about, and living far away, in New York.

“The environment in the States is more conducive to create the work that I want to make,” she explains. “I feel that if this is what you want to do then you try to surround yourself with people who are in a similar mindset. So I haven’t come back to Singapore for good because of that.”

Family ties

But she never stays away for long.

Her entire family is in Singapore so she makes it a point to return for one or two months every year, which she says is “hardly anything”.

“There’s something that brings me home all the time.”

And she says it doesn’t matter that her work is produced and displayed elsewhere in the world, as long as her identity as a Singaporean is made clear.

“I will always do the best I can no matter what it is. And I am very patriotic, so in whatever I do I will try my best to represent Singapore well.”

No Place Like Home  is on at Sculpture Square until 22 August 2011.

* Main picture: Wee Hong Ling with her piece, Lineage 34, which symbolises lineage and family ties through ages. Behind her is her family portrait.

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