A design collaboration between Bát Tràng Museum Atelier (BTMA) and artist Phan Linh, the Mã Niên Collection reflects on the horse as a symbol of time, memory, and origins. The works combine Phan Linh’s contemporary sculptural language with BTMA’s distinctive ceramic craftsmanship.
A memory returning
The Mã Niên Horse Sculpture, the centerpiece of the collection, depicts a horse gazing into a quiet stream. Cloud-like ripples on the water surface appear in its eyes and spirit, creating a poetic moment where earth, sky, and nature meet.
Years living in Northern Europe—with its brief winter light, harsh climate, and shifting landscapes—opened a contemplative space where Eastern sensibilities returned to the artist’s inner world. The calm image of a horse on the fields, observed through changing seasons, became a point of resonance that awakened her memories of the four seasons at home and shaped the emotional thread of the collection.
A path tracing back to origins
From these distant memories, Phan Linh traced an inner journey back to her cultural roots—where tradition transcends geography. The motif of a horse drinking from a stream evokes a sense of origin, place, and enduring values passed through generations.
In the Mã Niên Horse Sculpture, a minimalist contemporary form is subtly connected with tradition through a water motif inspired by the curved lines of a saddle on a 19th-century stone sculpture at Minh Mạng Mausoleum, and through cloud patterns familiar in classical Vietnamese art and architecture.
Cloud motifs follow the saddle-like outline of the form and are crafted using layered relief techniques, combining raised and recessed surfaces with BTMA’s signature glaze effects to create soft, flowing lines and visual depth.
The interplay between the sculpture’s asymmetrical form and the stability of its cloud-shaped base creates a balanced composition where contemporary shapes intersect with traditional details in a refined design dialogue.
A tradition carried into the present
Drawing on her experience as a multidisciplinary artist with a bold approach to color, Phan Linh selected BTMA’s signature glazes—bronze green, cobalt blue, red, and blush pink—to shape the palette of the collection. In the Mã Niên Horse Sculpture, the head and base are conceived as two distinct visual axes, allowing flexible and expressive color combinations.
Expanding from the central sculpture, the collection includes the Horse Cup, Noodle Bowl, Horse-Tail Vase, and Coaster—everyday forms reinterpreted through the design language and spirit of Mã Niên, creating a natural connection between artistic expression and functional objects.
Mã Niên also continues BTMA’s collaborations with contemporary artists: from Rồng Phố (2023) and An Nam (2024) with designer Diệu Anh, to Con Vịt Collection (2025) with architect Nguyễn Hà. BTMA’s signature techniques—from sculpting and carving to layered glazes—combined with each artist’s design perspective, create dynamic conversations between heritage and contemporary practice. This spirit positions ceramics as a source of inspiration for new artistic explorations shaped by the materials and sensibilities of our time.
