Pressure Against Form
The body became the place where pressure could be seen.
We were not there when the photographs were made. We only met the work after, through the images. That distance made the photographs feel more complete. They arrived with their own decisions, their own closeness, and their own way of holding the object. The egg was no longer just a small form placed
against skin. It began to shift depending on where it rested. Between the body, it felt held. Against a curve, it felt protected. Near a fold, it became part of the surface. The body did not act as background. It became the ground of the image.
What began as contact became a study of how a body holds its own weight.
What stayed with us was the order of the workshop. It was small, but the workflow was clear. One person handled the moulds, another cleaned the surface, while Li Chunqi returned to the egg with paint, tools, and small corrections. The making did not feel staged for us. It felt practiced. That control is part of
what Ab Ovo carries. The object is not made to look perfectly machine-made. You can still see the hand in the painted speckles, the surface, and the small differences between each piece. But those differences feel natural, not unfinished. They give the egg its character without taking away from the form.
By the end, the egg no longer felt separate from the body around it. It became something held, pressed, and answered by the surface it touched.
What stayed was not the idea of pressure alone, but the way a body could give that pressure shape without losing its own presence.