A sculptor named Johnson Tsang, originally from Hong Kong, pushes the envelope by creating unique sculptures of humans – more specifically sculptures of the human face.
While he makes a variety of miniature sculptures of people and small scenes, his face sculptures are what truly make his work stand out. The distinguishing touch that Tsang includes in his work is the flexibility of the human skin by emphasizing details of squishing, pushing, or pulling of the human face. In these face sculptures, the human is reacting to the pushing and pulling of their skin, demonstrating the feeling of discomfort or being alarmed.
Tsang’s most recent ceramic sculptures focus on the human face with no adding of color on the clay besides the occasional skin pigment, mouth, or eye color, focusing mainly on the lighting and shading of the face to make the facial features stand out. In his older work, Tsang also focuses primarily on the breaking and cracking of the human face. He expresses this in his work with the look of broken rubble and rocks or the melting of the skin, which can be thought provoking to anyone looking at his work.
Tsang’s sculpture looks smooth to the touch and the most distinguishing characteristics of the pieces are the details to the faces he creates. He notes in the titles and names of each of his pieces when he has added string, wooden frames, and to note when the pieces were made using porcelain. He uses a baby face motif, however he still creates many sculptures of the adult face. His work is delicate, detail oriented, and expresses the beauty Tsang sees in faces of humans.
