Zi Xin, also known as Sylvia, is a Sydney based ceramic artist whose practice begins with language and lived experiences across cultures, particularly vernacular expressions shaped by Eastern and Western contexts. Through humour and curiosity, idioms and slang are translated into ceramic sculptures that carry meaning, memory and cultural associations.
Zi Xin stretches her canvas with clay. Her hand-built forms draw from Chinese paper and fabric folk objects, including lanterns, kites and fabric toys, combining three dimensional forms with a strong painterly quality. Bold colour, graphic surfaces, airbrushed underglaze and varied glaze techniques create playful and textured ceramic objects.
Her work explores the meanings embedded within familiar forms. Folk objects often carry gestures of care and wish making, as well as cultural expectations. Through clay and fire, Zi Xin reimagines these cultural blessings, giving form and permanence to ideas that are otherwise intangible. For her, making is an act of reclamation and becoming.