about xí xoọng ceramics

Xí Xoọng (see - song) Ceramics by Claire Nguyễn is a small-batch ceramics project based in Lenapehoking (Philadelphia, PA). As a child of Vietnamese refugees from the American War in Southeast Asia, Claire’s artistic practices are informed by their lineage of resistance, resilience, and joy.

what does xí xoọng mean?

Xí is a descriptor in Vietnamese language, and xoong translates to “pot.” Xí xoọng (as misspelled by their parents) is Claire’s childhood nickname, first used to describe their sassy, charismatic wonderment as a child. Over time, the name stuck and captures the playfulness and history behind Claire’s pots. The double meaning in the name is the perfect descriptor for our pottery project.

our values

  • Every single day we use functional ceramics without even thinking about it from our morning coffee to washing our hands in the sink. In the mundane routine of life, every day is full of little joys. My handmade work attempts to remind us of these little joys that help us appreciate and remember our aliveness.

  • The oldest pottery vases in the world were found in China, dating back 20,000 years from present. Understanding how this art has transformed in its form and purpose for humans globally over time informs my work.

    I strive to subvert the predominantly white ceramics industry in the United States by making space for my work, to challenge the ongoing impact of imperialism, colonialism, and capitalism in siloing Third World peoples from accessing hand-crafted artisan ceramics.

  • Global capitalism reinforces poverty and has made the ceramics industry inaccessible to many. In addition, independent ceramic artists have struggled to keep up with the mass production of ceramic goods globally due to industrialization and globalization. I do not sell my work to make exorbitant profits, rather I sell my work with the hope of sharing my lineages of resistance, resilience, and joy through my functional art.

    This is why I sell my work on a sliding scale basis. When my business grows more in the future, I plan to regularly redistribute a portion of my profits to grassroots mutual aid funds that will go to Black, Indigenous, and non-Black people of color who are systemically impacted by poverty, ableism, incarceration, cisheteropatriarchy, and other forms of violence.

  • Every pot has a story. At XXC, I strive to break the business & consumer binary relationship into one of mutual sharing. Storytelling is a large component of my artistic, personal, and political practice. With each pot I share on social media, I love to tell a story about it or about some aspect of my life - no matter how big or small it feels to me.

    I invite you to be apart of my pottery collection/archive! It is my hope that my ceramics social media accounts will become places where we can cultivate connection and community by sharing with each other our stories, in addition to my art.