Memory of Emotions, 2018
Inhwa Lee
“I place the finished work in front of a window bathed in sunlight to take the time to contemplate the finished object, observing the light passing through the walls of the vessel and feeling the texture of the clay. Whilst walking along the Suiupchon Valley behind my studio, I dream about depicting clear water on white porcelain, and when walking through snowfields, imagine capturing the snowflakes on this smooth pure white surface. I realise these images through new works, placing them again by the window and contemplating them.”
Inhwa Lee works with a blend of opaque and translucent clay and porcelain to create hand-thrown cylindrical vessels with a marbled appearance. Once her clay is dry, she works the interior and exterior of each piece to render the walls so fine that light can pass through them. In creating delicate clay vessels that resemble marbled paper and appear to glow from within, Lee pushes her material to its limit and displays its inherent elegance.
Yanggu White Porcelain is world renowned for its beautiful purity of colour and strength when fired to high temperatures, and is found in the Bangsan Region. For hundreds of years, and within living memory, potteries were located at the foot of the mountains there. Inhwa Lee and her husband Kim Deok-ho moved to the area to study Yanggu White Clay at the Yanggu White Porcelain Centre, which was founded by Seoul University in 2013.