Kwak Hye-Young

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1982 Born in Gangwon province, South Korea

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ECC's Personal Structures 2022 catalogue page

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Kwak Hye-Young is a conceptual Korean ceramic artist who attempts to ‘record’ rain in her ceramic works, giving permanence to the impermanent. To the artist, the rain only begins to exist by falling, she interprets the sound of rainfall as the brave voice of the invisible expressing its own existence. The artist prepares porcelain boards with cobalt mixed dark media and place in various locations; from her garden to the city street to allow the rain to fall on the surface and create these ephemeral works.

 

At less than 2.5cm thick, the boards go through a 40-day drying period in natural conditions to avoid cracking, before they are placed in the kiln and subtly glazed by the dried rain. Some reveal embedded colours that lie under the clay, and others draw you towards a meditative state, to simply ‘see the sound of rain’. Kwak asserts that the work is created by nature itself and that she is merely the collaborator.

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Selected Exhibitions

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2019 ‘Object, Objects’ at CTF by KCDF, Seoul, South Korea

2017 The 8th Seoul Modern Art Show, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea

2015 Asia Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition, China Academy of

          Art, Hangzhou, China

2014 'Beyond the Wave of Wind', Lee Jung-Seop Art Museum, Jeju Island,

          South Korea

2013 Asia Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition, Aichi Ceramic Art

          Museum, Aichi, Japan

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