Pinchpot Dance
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC (2025-2026)
For: Fourth-Year Art Direction Students at Emily Carr University
Invited by:
Alex Hass
Photo Credits:
Quinton Qiu
Workshop documentation of Pinchpot Dance, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026. Photo credit: Quinton Qiu.
Art Direction Material Workshop
Materials: Clay, water.
Che's collaborative clay workshop offers a material-centered antidote to Art Direction students experiencing a creeping disconnection between virtual design spaces and the tangible physical world. The pandemic lockdown's lingering effects and the mediation of social media has posed many challenges to many students' ability to communicate and collaborate effectively.
Instead of focusing on individual craft and technique, Che foregrounds collective making, creative limitations, and quick iteration. Multiple balls of clay are passed around the group simultaneously, each pinch pot takes form through a series of fast initiation and responses between students. Che then leads participants in combining individual vessels into a collective form, giving prompts to maximize vertical height or horizontal reach. Students learn to think collaboratively through material experimentation, edit and combine units into complex whole, and receive a teammate's creative input as a gift and resource, instead of a hindrance to their individual vision.
Xinwei Che, Pinchpot Dance workshop.
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026. Photo credit: Quinton Qiu.
Xinwei Che, Pinchpot Dance workshop.
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026. Photo credit: Quinton Qiu.
Xinwei Che, Pinchpot Dance workshop.
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026. Photo credit: Quinton Qiu.
Xinwei Che, Pinchpot Dance workshop.
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC, 2025-2026. Photo credit: Quinton Qiu.