Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Yeesookyung

Korean artist Yeesookyung received her MFA in Painting, at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1989.The artist creates sculptures by combining discarded shards of porcelain, assembling them to make new forms and fusing them with gold leaf.The resulting works are often organic in shape, resembling soap bubbles or other biomorphic forms.Her series titled “Translated Vase,” was first inspired by the Korean artisan tradition of destroying porcelain works that are not deemed pristine, and she has continued to make the fused pieces since 2001.Intrigued by these tossed aside works and shards, Yeesookyung began saving fragmented tea cups and pots rejected by contemporary masters.The artist collected broken shards from artisans who worked in Korea replicating historical vessels from the Goryeo (918–1392) and Joseon (1392–1897) dynasties.Honoring the works’ dismantled states, she traces each crevice in 24-karat gold leaf in the style of Japanese kintsugi, merging the unwanted works together in a way that heightens the beauty of their distress.By ‘translating’ these porcelain elements, Yeesookyung highlights the fragility and imperfections of human existence as well as the inevitable failure of any attempt to construct historic continuity.More of Yeesookyung‘s wonderful creations can be found at https://www.yeesookyung.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/yeesookyung_/.