2025
Archival pigment print on fine art paper
60 x 40 cm
Edition of 50 + 1 AP
Each print is hand-signed and individually numbered by the artist

In her Obsessions series Julie Progin builds on her research about classical Chinese porcelain ware motifs. She depicts traditional ceramic vessels and adorns them with a blend of intricate compositions inspired by the mille-fleurs design—a dense arrangement of various flowers symbolising “all the flowers bestow their blessings”—and drawings of ordinary household objects that contain strong narratives relating to Hong Kong’s industrial history and to the artists’ memories of growing up in the city surrounded by these items—merging a rich variety of reference points.

I am Plastic depicts more than a hundred plastic objects—from buckets to lampshades—arranged in a composition echoing the excessively meticulous wan hua dui (ten thousand flowers piled up or mille-fleurs) designs traditionally painted onto the glazed surface of porcelain vessels.

The piece is inspired by common objects that have become symbols of Hong Kong’s industrial past as one of the world’s leading plastic commodities manufacturer.

Plastic consumer products were an integral part of the Hong Kong’s development and defined the idea of ‘made in Hong Kong’. Some of the most distinctive Hong Kong-made plastic objects were produced by Star A Industrial in their San Po Kong factory which still actively produces over 600 items. They are best known for their in-house brand, Red A, which is most famous for their range of household staples such as watering cans, plastic basins, pails, and colanders, as well as its popular red plastic lampshade that hangs in most wet market stalls in Hong Kong.
I am Plastic is a celebration of these commonplace items. Julie Progin reframes these household implements that are part of daily life, shifting their perceived value from the ordinary to extraordinary cultural artefacts.

Julie Progin shares, “Mille-fleurs patterns are exceedingly meticulous and demand focus and time to paint. As a person with mild OCD, drawing excessively detailed patterns is akin to a form of meditation—a ritual to rid myself of compulsions and uncontrollable recurring thoughts.
Each print in the Obsessions series is time-consuming to produce. The designs are complex and very dense allowing no visible white space between objects which feeds into another concept that inspires my work: horror vacui or fear of empty spaces. Every square centimetre of my drawings is filled with details in a compulsive excess of activity much like the traditional shops in Hong Kong where owners find creative solutions to display as much commodities as they can in their tiny ground floor spaces. When you enter these shops it’s like discovering a cave of wonders. Every inch is filled with products for sale. The art of stacking, hanging, strapping objects together as a space-saving technique produces beautiful patterns and systems that remind me of the thousand flowers designs where no space is left unfilled”.

Each drawing in the Obsessions series is complemented by a deceptively minimal background, filled with tone-on-tone patterns—quietly busy—inspired by motifs Julie Progin extracts from silk brocades and paper sheets commonly used as lining in the production of boxes to store precious items such as the mille-fleurs porcelain vessels.