Fabergé Big Egg Hunt — New York
The Porcelain Skull egg, handmade and fired in Jingdezhen

01st Apr 2014
New York, USA

In April 2014, Jacky Tsai created a large, handcrafted porcelain egg for The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt in New York. The work translated his Porcelain Skull imagery into an egg-shaped sculpture, bringing the blue-and-white skull motif together with traditional ceramic craftsmanship from Jingdezhen, China.

The initiative placed more than 260 artist-designed eggs across New York’s five boroughs, inviting people to discover artworks as they moved through the city. The sculptures were then brought together for a free public finale at Rockefeller Center from 18–25 April.

The project supported Elephant Family’s conservation work and Studio in a School’s visual arts programmes in New York public schools. A live auction at Sotheby’s and an accompanying online auction through Paddle8 formed part of the fundraising programme.

Made in Jingdezhen

The egg was handmade and fired in Jingdezhen using traditional blue-and-white porcelain techniques. Its scale required Tsai and the team to seek out the largest kiln they could find there to accommodate the work.

The archival kiln photograph records this stage of production. Shown alongside the finished Porcelain Skull egg, it preserves the connection between the New York public art project and the traditional skills and demanding firing process behind its making.