Seoul-based artist Yeesookyung is best known for her Translated Vase (2002– ) series, for which she transforms discarded ceramic shards into biomorphic sculptures, fusing the fragments with 24-karat gold leaf. Works from this series have been exhibited globally, including her five-meter-tall Nine Dragons in Wonderland (2017), shown at the International Exhibition of the 57th Venice Biennale. Trained as a painter at the Seoul National University, Yeesookyung emerged on the art scene in the 1990s as part of a wave of young Korean artists experimenting with a wide range of mediums to express personal experiences in a rapidly modernizing Korea. Yeesookyung has since worked across video, sculpture, drawing, and installation in her own study of individual and collective histories. On the occasion of Yeesookyung’s show “Fragments of Form” at Hong Kong’s Massimo De Carlo gallery, Lauren Long sat down with the artist to discuss her longstanding ceramic project, her introspective practice, and her reflections on Korea’s past.
December 30, 2019
