YOUNG MI KIM
United States
2013
Stoneware, terra sigillata glaze
15″ wide x 15″ deep x 9 3/4″ high

Young Mi Kim is a South Korean ceramicist who works and teaches in Woodstock, New York. Her sculptural ceramic pieces are hand built. She layers strands of clay in a coil, slowly and carefully working upward as she discovers the shape. Young Mi writes, “In essence, each layer marks time and space. When I hand build my pots, it is a form of meditation. It is my attempt to live in grace: like an open vessel, empty and yet full.” Young Mi is also a gardener, and her time in nature clearly influences her work. Her sculptures often resemble flowers, seed pods, fungi and other organic forms.

There is an extraordinary delicacy about this thin-walled white vessel. One side of it seems to have captured the wind, billowing gently out, while the other gracefully folds in upon itself. This piece has been kept in the kiln until the terra sig outer glaze loses its shine and begins to develop a slight craquelure. The inner glaze is darker, glossy, one imagines it might be wet to the touch. Young Mi’s undulating vessels are a leap of faith: after the hours it takes for her to built their delicate shapes, she never knows if they will survive their time in the kiln. Each unique work emerges from an exercise of profound attention.

Read more about Young Mi Kim here.