Afterall is a research centre and publisher based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. We publish a bi-annual journal and four book series focusing on contemporary art from a global and decolonial perspective. We work with partners across five continents to deepen this enquiry and make it available through print and online publications, podcasts, events and writing workshops. Through our activities we aim to nurture sustainable art publishing ecosystems and infrastructures.
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Afterall is a research centre and publisher based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. We publish a bi-annual journal and four book series focusing on contemporary art from a global and decolonial perspective. We work with partners across five continents to deepen this enquiry and make it available through print and online publications, podcasts, events and writing workshops. Through our activities we aim to nurture sustainable art publishing ecosystems and infrastructures.
Afterall x Para Site, Reframing Strangeness with Mike Fok
Afterall
36 minutes 51 seconds
1 month ago
Afterall x Para Site, Reframing Strangeness with Mike Fok
In collaboration with Para Site, Hong Kong, as part of the exhibition ‘Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen’s Motherboards and Collagraphs’ (2025), Afterall have initiated a series of conversations with artists, curators and scholars. The exhibition reframes Ha’s motherboards from functional tools to aesthetic objects. We depart from Ha’s unconventional printing practice to generate new interpretations and intergenerational conversations, extending from Hong Kong to the world beyond
Our third episode in this series is with Mike Fok, an Yixing teapot collector and consultant. Ha Bik Chuen was known as a collector and hoarder of all sorts of things such as books, photographs, documents, to name but these. Reflecting on the drive of collectors and hoarders and in an associative move that expands from Ha to other collecting practices in Hong Kong, I spoke to Mike Fok about his lifelong passion for Yixing teapots and Chinese tea culture. Mike shares how his journey began more than twenty years ago, when a taste of aged pu’er tea sparked his curiosity. The search for good tea soon led him to teaware, and eventually to the world of Yixing clay teapots – renowned for their craftsmanship and unique brewing qualities.
He recalls starting out in Hong Kong’s markets and on early online platforms, before realising that much of the best material had already been collected in the 1980s and ’90s. His quest took him further afield, to mainland China, Japan and Thailand, where he encountered antique teapots and learned from handling real examples. For Mike, using teapots daily – washing, touching and brewing – is the key to understanding their qualities, much like testing different sound systems with music, a learning process akin to how Ha taught himself to make motherboards through tactile experiences.
Mike Fok (@mikefokjazz, b. Hong Kong) first discovered Yixing teapots after a memorable tea gathering, where he was struck by how they enhanced the flavours and aromas of aged pu’er and yancha (‘rock tea’) – transforming them into a true feast of taste and fragrance. Like his other passions, theatre and jazz, his fascination with Yixing teapots became a lifelong pursuit of exploration, never satisfied with simple answers from books or online forums. Focusing on Yixing teapots from the renowned Factory One period (1958–98), Mike has pursued a systematic study of their five key aspects – clay, shape, craftsmanship, mark and kiln – through extensive fieldwork in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Yixing itself, as well as Thailand and Japan. Mike regards these objects not only as vessels for tea, but as artworks that reflect the spiritual life and aesthetic sensibilities of their time.
This podcast series is produced by Arianna Mercado and co-edited by Elisa Adami, Wing Chan, Adeena Mey and David Morris.
Follow Mike on instagram at @mikefokjazz
Afterall
Afterall is a research centre and publisher based at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. We publish a bi-annual journal and four book series focusing on contemporary art from a global and decolonial perspective. We work with partners across five continents to deepen this enquiry and make it available through print and online publications, podcasts, events and writing workshops. Through our activities we aim to nurture sustainable art publishing ecosystems and infrastructures.
