Hustle Culture Begone, Ceramics That Transcend Time
Photo credit Alexander Singer
Words by Kyra Shapurji
Minh Singer’s ceramics transcends today’s productivity standards in ways that are rare with a level of attention and care engrained. Working primarily in ceramics, she synthesises realms of civilizations long gone, the centre of the earth, natural phenomena, the cosmos, and the very present moment into timeless art objects. A graduate of Pratt Institute, her background in fashion and art education has helped establish her growing Brooklyn-based business.
Minh's pieces can be purchased on her website.
Photo credit Alisha Ellyn
“I start with myself and that energy goes out. And that’s my purpose in life . . . just very simple . . . my purpose is not being a ceramicist, it’s not doing so much stuff. I just want to be, I just want to be self-actualized and try to spread that energy.”
Iceland series.
To encounter one of Minh Singer’s “Iceland” ceramic bowls for the first time is to feel captivated and mesmerised by the piece’s intrinsic elements. The depth of colours mixing from ocean blues, to luminous whites, and to sunset pinks, they all settle into one another and come to rest at the base of melded broken glass. The touch of gold catches the eye as one picks it up, ever so gently. It’s light in weight. On a closer look, the rich tones and mélange of hues evoke a natural quality that negates the small bowl’s time-consuming handmade quality. A pinch pot of bespoke layers.
These layers of glazes, firings, and colours and how they came together to form such arresting, distinct pieces are what I wanted to understand. Welcoming me into her light-filled Brooklyn studio on a cloudy, drizzly day with a lovely crudité lunch gesture (graciously placed on one of her own platters) alongside her warm smile, Minh and I pass the next hour and a half by chatting at length not only into her process, creative origins but into the layers of a life that has led her to ceramics and where she finds inspiration.
Minh came to ceramics through a myriad of previous jobs (Barnery’s New York, local hardware / flower shop clerk, teacher) but for her creative journey genesis she points to her time spent with Vietnamese painters her mom used to sponsor while growing up in LA. Painting and drawing were her first loves and says, “how she processed the world.” As a “very shy” child and unconfident about her English-speaking skills, art was how Minh expressed herself and her identity very early on.
Finding your intuition is a lifeline for any creative, and Minh attributes finding hers initially with a knack for being able to match clothes to people (while working at Barney’s.) This “knack” led her to become a successful Sales Associate at the store with a returning, regular clientele, but she realised this wasn’t ultimately making her happy. She decided to attend Pratt in Brooklyn as her next endeavour, and tried the art teacher route for a bit, before determining it wasn’t in her “wheelhouse of a personality” to teach 30 kids at once in the public school system. She credits getting to know herself and her heritage while spending time in Vietnam working odd jobs (all formative and references for her future art). When she came back to the U.S. after five years abroad, she took a ceramics class for fun with a friend.
At the beginning, ceramics was only a hobby for Minh. “I didn't love it at first, I was really bad at it actually. And I thought when I first started: I'm going to make tableware and it’s going to be all white.’” Slowly but surely, the “for-fun hobby” turned into a passion. She realised the time commitment she was spending with the clay was taking on more of her days while working at the local hardware’s floral shop. Once her friend-manager left the shop, it was the impetus she needed to take the “training wheels” off and commit full-time to her business.
Becoming her own boss and launching her own company was also a way for Minh to tap into her family heritage. As she says, “Vietnamese people are entrepreneurial . . . growing up Western and American, we are all trained to work for somebody and go out and go to college and then get a job . . . but my aunt really pushed me. She said, ‘you could do your art.’ She gave me permission, so then I committed to it. After I made that commitment, things just kind of opened up, kind of auspicious, serendipitous things, and I met the right people and the right stores.”
Minh’s pieces can be found in a myriad of places these days, sold in homeware and fashion boutiques, to curated hotels’ gift shops, and even in The Brooklyn Museum of Art’s shop, but still only producing by hand the amount needed to meet sellers’ demands. Producing by hand doesn’t mean she does it all on her own, as she has a small but mighty team, one she is quick to give credit to. The team helps her with her financials, newsletters, and actual fabrication of the pieces (though Minh still creates all of the pinch pots herself) from formation, to glazing, firing, and sanding.
“I approach my artwork with what my limitations are and go from there. Limitations are helpful.”
It’s this connection with her team that lends itself to how Minh defines creativity and, simply put, “it’s about connecting--and finding balance.” She undoubtedly believes that the energy and emotion you bring into a workspace whether as an artist or as a manager of your business transcends into the work and craft. “I start with myself and that energy goes out. And that's my purpose in life . . . just very simple . . . my purpose is not being a ceramicist, it's not doing so much stuff. I just want to be, I just want to be self-actualized and try to spread that energy.”
She also credits how working with constraints fuels her creative imagination. “I approach my artwork with what my limitations are and go from there. Limitations are helpful.” These limitations come into play with her pinch pots where the clay used is only the scraps and remnants from other, larger pieces. Using only “the leftovers” she moulds and pinches the clay ball meditatively into its bowl shape (honing in on that intuitive feeling formed years ago), always shaping with her eyes closed, waiting for the piece to feel right in weight and touch before starting down the colouring phases of multi-glazes.
Her pieces typically have an average of seven to nine glazes each and few firings, a true value of time for a ceramist to give to individual pieces. As she aptly says, “the hustle culture isn't for a piece like this at all. There's a timestamp in all of my work. If I try to just use one colour, it's just going to look like everybody else's work, so I have to put some time into it.”
For inspiration, she reveres The Met in NYC and considers it her “church” because of the breadth of art as well as artefacts that span countries and time periods. “I feel I don't even have to travel if I go to the Met, I could go through space and time.” Seeing the centuries-old art made for the gods leads her to a higher spiritual level and affirmation. “You have to kind of believe in some kind of magic” and to ask, ‘how do you navigate this world?’”
A survey of Minh’s pieces showcases her passion for nature (she’s an avid swimmer and gravitates to water like a “mermaid” as her friends have been known to call her).
“I know that when I’m in nature, I get out of my own way and that’s also where a lot of inspiration comes from, too. I think about the universe, and I think about the centre of the earth, and I think about the gap between, and I think about how everything’s related and how we’re all connected... And I think about Buddha and I think about Jesus and I think about how it all kind of flows into one.”
Looking to the future, Minh hopes to evolve her business with interior designers and galleries, while staying considerate of the energy it takes to “timestamp” her creations with her singular quality and depth. Minh’s effulgent colours, thoughtful pace, and inherent sentiments all coalesce in each piece she produces--a signature throughline found beneath the layers and the flourish of gold detail.
This feature was written by Kyra Shapurji.
By day, Kyra is a Program Manager but moonlights as a writer on culture, travel, and the creative arts. She feels most comfortable and at ease when she's in the company of artists and creatives chatting about books and inspiration for a project, and listening to others tell their life story.
In the past, Kyra was the Managing Editor at LoftLife, Assistant to Travel & Research Editor at Saveur and has written for Hôtel Weekend and HILUXURY Travel.
As a recent contributing writer for FAIRE Journal, she also currently writes for Fathom. She also believes strongly in volunteering in one's community, and for the last five years, Kyra was a mentor with NYC's Bigs & Littles program.
Kyra currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and when she's not out at a new restaurant, art exhibit or theatre show, she's got her nose in a book or The New Yorker and is most certainly planning her next travel itinerary. Her published work and blog can be found here, and for her latest travels find her on Instagram @shap_attack.