Ruby 嫦潔 White

Ruby 嫦潔 White is a food and ceramic artist whose work is centred around ideas of food sovereignty and sustainability, and who explores ways to reconnect with and honour their mixed heritage within the context of being tauiwi in Aotearoa. Many of her early ceramics and woodwork pieces were produced by hand en masse using locally sourced native materials — an attempt to mimic and challenge less sustainable manufacturing approaches for tableware — while her later work interrogates concerns around climate change and our collective future, expressed through the lens of her unique diasporic identity.

Born in Naarm, White moved to Tāmaki Makaurau with her mother when she was 17. Between 2014 and 2018 — after graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts — White presented a series of sold-out pop-up dinner events under the pseudonym Miss Changy. This extended the work she'd started at Elam and this period included collaborations with Satellites on a pop-up breakfast and travelling food cart (2017), chef Sam Low (2018) on a multi-course modern Chinese feast and Nicola Farquhar on a multi-course dinner during her residency at McCahon House. “The name Miss Changy is a satirical joke in itself,” explained White, in an interview with Hainamana. “It plays off the racist “Ching Chang Chong” fingers-to-eyes representation of Chinese people when I was growing up. But also doubles as a colonial appropriation of my Chinese name 嫦潔 (Chang-Jet), I am half European-Australian so the hybridisation of my name is an acknowledgement of my paternal half.”

In 2017, White opened Small Fry, an artist-run cafe inside Pakuranga gallery and community centre, Te Tuhi. Featuring her handmade ceramics and tables designed by Amelia Fagence, the cafe served modern Malaysian-inspired dishes like laksa, congee, kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs. Concrete Playground described it as a “living, breathing, mouthwatering art project” and Metro named it in their Top 50 cafes of 2018.

White closed down the cafe in 2018, which enabled her to focus on her ceramics practice. In 2020, she completed a Diploma in Ceramic Arts at Otago Polytechnic and in 2021, was awarded the Enjoy Summer Residency at the Rita Angus Cottage, where she spent her time developing functional wheel-thrown hand-built ceramic cookers, using natural raw clay and terra sigillata, an ancient Roman clay slip. Reflecting on the materials she was drawing on, she wrote at the time:

Developing the clay body for the cookers was an involved process of product development over the course of a year. It is currently a blend of earthenware (Australia and Aotearoa), lithium substrates and toilet paper.

There is a conversation to be had around the ethics of using mined minerals, in much the same way that I am using clay from stolen land. While it is very uncomfortable to sit with this acknowledgement I think that this is part of the process of harnessing contemporary knowledge of natural resources and putting them to use in alternative ways for positive and sustainable living. It’s going to be a crucial part of my personal education and growth.

In developing the cookers, White searched for forms that were organic and playful. “It’s appealing to think about these pieces as objects that go on to have a life and active engagement with whoever it is that takes it home,” she wrote at the time. “The life cycle of this object began and ends outside of me (it’s humbling).”

This work culminated in Pieces of, an exhibition at Enjoy that included these cookers, as well as video work, biofuel research, and kai prepared on the cookers on opening night. Each cooker was priced by weight — similar to how we value meat — an attempt by White to challenge current norms around the ways we value art.

In 2022, White undertook a residency at Driving Creek, where she made a number of wood-fired pieces that were presented as part of the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival group show gap [黄馨贤박성환嫦潔] filler at Studio One Toi Tū. This series, titled Stranger Families, featured a collection of handmade Chinese 泡菜壇 (pàocài tán) — water seal fermenting crock pots — that she invited friends and family to fill with vegetables to ferment over the period of the exhibition, culminating in a shared meal with the public on the final day of the show. “Through their form and function [these pots] hold an inner space for metabolism, transformation and existence,” she wrote on her Instagram. “They are home to life and intended for the living.”

White currently lives in Naarm.

Objectspace — 'At Home and in the Studio: Ruby White'

Hainamana — 'In Conversation with Ruby White aka Miss Changy'

'How noodles are connecting Ruby White to her culture'

2023 — gap [黄馨贤박성환嫦潔] filler, Studio One Toi Tū, Tāmaki Makaurau, a group show with Cindy Huang and Sung Hwan Bobby Park, curated by Yeonjae Choi

2022 — Cora-Allan Twiss x Daniel Twiss x Ruby 嫦潔 White Gate Dinner, McCahon House, Tāmaki Makaurau

2022 — Underbelly, Te Komititanga, Tāmaki Makaurau, a collaboration with Hanna Shim for City of Colour 2022

2021 — Pieces of, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Pōneke

2019 — Nectar, Mangere Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau, a group show curated by Cora-Allan Wickliffe and Madeleine Gifford

2019 — Mercury Plaza: Origins + New Beginnings, Mercury Plaza, Tāmaki Makaurau, a group show honouring the closing down of Mercury Plaza

2019 — Te Whāinga: A Culture Lab on Civility, Silo Park, Tāmaki Makaurau, a group show [with this section curated by Satellites] presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center with Auckland Museum

2019 — Nicola Farquar x Miss Changy Gate Dinner, McCahon House, Tāmaki Makaurau

2018 — #UPDATE, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau, a group show curated by Cora-Allan Wickliffe

2017–2018 — Small Fry at Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau

2017 — Miss Changy x Satellites, Tāmaki Makaurau

2022 — Driving Creek Residency

2021 — Enjoy Summer Residency