100=? by Yixin Wang
Yixin Wang made 100 replica teapots and distributed them across China and London, exploring what happens when an object's value detaches it from its original, everyday purpose.
From a young age, Yixin has been interested in what happens to objects when they're overlooked. As she researched and learned more during her studies, she also began to consider objects that become removed from everyday life not through being overlooked but through becoming so culturally, emotionally or financially valuable that they are admired and celebrated, and as a result removed from their original functions.
Yixin named the space where these objects exist the 'ghost layer' - a condition in which objects remain present but are suspended from active participation in everyday life. For Yixin, objects can enter this space in two ways, either through industrial overproduction (where there are more goods produced than can be used) or by becoming so valuable they are no longer used for their originally intended function. In both cases, the object's relationship with everyday life is interrupted. The teapot can exemplify both sides 鈥� as there is a history of industrial ceramics on the one hand, and a history of highly prized pieces by renowned individual makers, as is the tradition in Yixing, China, where Yixin grew up.
Yixing is known for the unglazed ceramic teapots made in the area. She explains, "In 2015, a teapot made by famous ceramicist Gu Jingzhou sold at auction for approximately 拢5.7 million, making it one of the most expensive Yixing teapots ever sold."
As someone who grew up in Yixing, I became interested in how many Yixing teapots have shifted from everyday utensils to highly valued collectibles, with objects originally designed for daily tea drinking transforming into protected cultural artefacts.
Yixin Wang, BA Design
Yixin decided to slip-cast 100 Yixing teapots. Using plaster moulds and slip casting, Yixin was adopting techniques associated with industrial production. This contrasts the artisanal nature of the traditional process, which she discussed with local craftspeople on a visit back to her hometown. The moulds, teapots, archive photographs and production records were displayed at the BA Design Degree Show 2026.
The teapots after firing
These 100 teapots were then distributed amongst friends, family members and charity shops in China and in London, in an attempt to reconnect them with everyday use. "For me, the most important moment occurs when the teapots leave the studio," Yixin explained. "The distribution process is not the end of the project, but its starting point. Once the objects enter people's homes and everyday lives, they begin to accumulate new meanings, relationships, and histories beyond my control."
The project exists not as a collection of one hundred teapots, but as the lives of one hundred teapots.
Yixin Wang, BA Design
She reflects, "I hope the project encourages people to pay closer attention to the objects that surround them and to consider the lives those objects lead beyond their immediate function."
Working on this project has had a significant impact on her own practice and how she views materiality. "I am increasingly interested in how design can help us think differently about things that already exist. The project taught me that design can be a way of paying attention - of noticing what has been ignored, suspended, or forgotten - and creating space for new ways of understanding the world."