Edmund de Waal

Galerie Max Hetzler, where acquired by the present owner, 2019

The title of the present work comes from the poem jade steps grievance by Li Po and appears in Chinese Poetry: An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres by Wai-Lim Yip.

‘I work with things. I make them, from porcelain. And then I arrange them, find places to put them down, on shelves or within vitrines, in houses and galleries and museums, move them around so that they are in light or in shadow. They are installations, or groupings, or a kind of poetry. They have titles, a phrase or a line that helps them on their way in the world. [...]’

Edmund de Waal, Irrkunst, exh. cat., Berlin, Galerie Max Hetzler and Holzwarth Publications, 2016