Destruction and Recovery: ‘Irreverent Forms’ Ceramic Exhibition
Creatrip Team
4 months ago
Gladstone Gallery Seoul presents “Irreverent Forms,” a group show by ceramic artists Lee Heon-jeong, Kim Ju-ri, and Kim Dae-woon running until Jan 3. The exhibition challenges traditional Korean pottery ideals by embracing clay’s fragility, cracks, erosion, and transformation rather than polished completeness. Works explore cycles of destruction and restoration, using processes like kiln-induced deformation, water erosion, and intentional breakage. Lee’s multimedia pieces (e.g., “Untitled,” 2023) document a moon jar dissolving in water as a metaphor for human vulnerability and renewal. Kim Ju-ri’s “clay tablet” series evokes ancient Sumerian clay tablets and geological processes by compressing eroded clay fragments; her “Hwikyung;揮景” series records disappearing Seoul neighborhoods (due to redevelopment) as un-fired miniature clay forms reflecting 1980s housing. Kim Dae-woon recomposes broken moon-jar fragments into constellation-like assemblies (e.g., “Persona #2,” 2021), suggesting dignity through vulnerability and critiquing social norms of “normality.” Across the show, clay functions as a material language of identity, wounds, repair, and reconciliation, highlighting imperfection and interdependence over conventional ideals of perfection.
