Ceramics as Matrix. Sean Lean’s ‘China’

Essay accompanying the exhibition of Sean Lean's work at Wei-Ling Gallery's presentation (Kuala Lumpur) at ART SG (Singapore, 2026). Mey argues that Lean engages with ceramics not as a medium but as a conceptual matrix—a way to interrogate "Chineseness" and diasporic identity in Malaysia. Rather than reviving tradition, Lean translates porcelain forms through industrial materials like automotive paint and cut metal, creating works he calls "fakes." This approach exposes the layered mediations—colonial, familial, reproductive—through which "china" signifies cultural authenticity. Drawing on personal history, including his father's expectations, Lean treats inheritance as negotiation rather than return. His cut vessels, often presented as triptychs, literalise what Homi Bhabha terms "Third Space": an unstable zone of cultural meaning. The essay situates Lean within trans-Asian exchange histories, emphasising adjacency over origin, and positions his practice as a meditation on how forms, images, and identities travel and transform across time.