OOPS: Oh-Onion-Pomegranates
重新摆盘 | Replay & Re-plate the Colonial History
2025
A plate is a space and a platform that holds food, reflection, conversations, memories, love, pain, history and the present.
In the summer of 2025, supported by the Goethe-Institut China and the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, I completed a three-month research residency in Germany, hosted by Klub Solitaer. My project traced plants within colonial histories to explore historical connections between Germany and China. Research centered on Chemnitz, a former industrial hub, ultimately converging on the Meissen porcelain factory, supplier to the Kingdom of Saxony since the 18th century.
Meissen’s
signature “onion pattern” plate—a copy of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain(青花瓷)—ironically reappropriated the original pomegranate motif, a symbol of fertility and fortune, with an onion due to artisans’ unfamiliarity and ignorance, exemplifying cultural appropriation and colonial flattening.
In response, I again reappropriated Meissen’s plate, recreating the motif with Chinese plants that were planted in Chemnitz today and historically looted by colonial botanical hunters, identified in archival research at Leipzig University’s oldest botanical garden. The plate therefore became a platform where food, cultures, and shared history intersect. At the presentation, it was used for a signature fusion dish, a pomegranate-and-onion snack, not displayed as a luxury object. The plate was also auctioned for €289—the current Meissen retail price—with all proceeds donated to the local art space Klub Solitaer in support of sustainable cultural exchange.
The presentation took place in three cities related to the research—Chemnitz, Leipzig, and Meissen—with special thanks to Dirk Sorge, Brit Haßler, Robert Verch, Matthias Lehmann, and Susanne Gebhardt for their generous support.
Re-Plate: To Replay the History
A response, a reaction and a reexamination
Ceramics, two sizes
21x21x3cm
28x28x3cm
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Event photos by Fabian Thüeroff from Klub Solitaer, 2025. Presented at Kunstverein Meissen.