Ceramics from Jingdezhen in China are famous worldwide for their quality. One of the best-known objects is the "rice pattern bowl, which is manufactured in the Guangming porcelain factory. One of these bowls can be purchased from us for about four euros in every "Asia shop". To understand what that means, I first had to get to Jingdezhen.

Each bowl in the "Production Line" installation represents one of the 17 masters who produce one of the rice bowls in the Guangming Porcelain Factory in 17 production steps in a process which lasts just 97 seconds.The shape of the bowl is adapted to the bowls made in the factory. Each bowl is stamped with the name of the worker in order to give each worker his or her permanent identity through the porcelain material. There is a small number below the stamp to indicate the production step. The edge of each bowl is marked with the typical cobalt blue line. The length of the blue line represents the time by which the process is extended by the work step of the respective worker. The line on the edge of the last bowl in my series is finished by the last worker and the last work step.

Together, the trays show the entire production line and process time associated with the people behind the 17 pairs of hands that make the Guangming factory possible.