Shattered ceramics patched back together with gold? Oh yes, please! This series, by Seoul based artist Yee Sookyung, is titled “Translated Vase”. The final pieces are absolutely stunning {I saw some of them in Vancouver a few years ago}, but her process is just as fascinating:
“I took ceramic trash from a ceramic master who reproduces old Korean ceramics such as Joseon Baekja or Celadon.
After baking in a kiln by using the old method, ceramic masters break almost 70 percent of the porcelains that don’t reach up to their standards of masterpieces.
I put the broken bits and pieces of ceramic trash together one by one as if I’m putting together a jigsaw puzzle. And I cover the seams with 24 karat gold leaf. The result was uncanny and bumpy objects. Each broken piece operates as a self forming into an infinite proliferation toward as unexpected fabrication–fictitious loquacity and stuttering discards from standard conventional masterpieces.”
Amazing.
Fascinating! Reminds me of this show I saw in Toronto a few years ago: http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/exhibitions/breaking-boundaries
oh yeah! i can totally see that : )
They look so fluid and alive, I keep expecting some of the sculptures to move or grow more bulbous shapes. Curiouse considering their ceramics that have been set, and so can’t change forms unless brokn down and glued back together. Gold as glue. Relates to that moment when a person breaks some important ceramic vessel and tries to stick it back together again without any cracks showing. Like my old red postbox bank (as opposed to a piggy bank – the red postbox just looked so bright).