Scorpion

The heavily floral pattern on the porcelain carapace takes the sting out of the tail of ‘Scorpion’ slightly — the finely painted surface recalling Shu’s interest in combining a traditional royal class of Chinese ceramic design with the modern industrial design of chrome, and aligning favourably with such a striking and stately likeness, whose pose still manages to unsettle. Shu has spoken of aviation and machines of flight as an influence on his practice, how those entities convey a sense of motion even when stationary.