The moving white circles
Jongmin Lee uses unfamiliar tools to create a concise and detailed expression on white porcelain, that goes far beyond the usefulness of woodworking and knife skills. He sits alone in a workspace of less than 2 pyeong (3.31 square metres) every day, wearing goggles and a dust mask, like a diver about to go into the deep sea, and works on average for about 10 hours a day. The artist's dedicated work attitude is what we expect from a master craftsman. One wonders if the reason he constantly grinds and digs up stone-hardened objects with sharp tools is not to make something that has a function in the end, but because he is fascinated by how light became trapped inside the object and he wants others to have a similar experience when viewing it. Although the appearance of the artwork may look like an art tool, it is the most suitable form chosen by the artist to reproduce time and light, and the state of flowing time that is constantly being created by the wind. He only uses white clay for the soil. In considering the contraction rate after drying and firing, he decides the shape and size to be molded into a wheel. The artist’s preferred form is the pure form, that is, it does not lean toward symmetrical spheres or cubes. The volume and silhouette of the object seem premature, like a flower bud at dawn that is about to bloom. It is reminiscent of a moment in nature where the energy of life generated inside the living thing starts to move on the inside and begins swelling up outwardly. There is a big difference in the darkness and the brightness of the areas that are densely sculpted, and areas that are sparsely sculpted. It creates an illusion of Jongmin Lee's work fluttering like a living thing as the parts receiving a lot of light, the parts that are shaded, the scattering of light and the reflection of the glaze layer all become entangled.
Year of Creation: 2020
Materials: porcelain
Dimensions: 30.00*30.00*45.50cm