On Saturday afternoon, Heh Ja You, a professor of ceramics at Ewha Womans University of Seoul, South Korea, demonstrated various techniques of decorating celadon ceramic pieces to a crowd of community members and students at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. You is one of 54 contemporary Korean ceramic artists whose work is being displayed in the exhibit “From the Fire: Contemporary Korean Ceramics,” currently showing at the museum until April 22.
Although Korean ceramics date back more than 3,000 years, the form of ceramics known as celadon has its origins during the Goryeo period (918-1392), when ceramics took on aesthetic qualities. Celadon most commonly uses bluish-green-colored glaze on white stoneware clay.
One of You’s techniques is to first paint the ceramic piece with bluish-green slip, which is a liquid form of clay, and then to let it dry. After it dries, she uses a handmade metal tool to carve designs into the slip, revealing the color of the clay beneath.
On the first piece, she carved the shape and scales of a fish into a bowl, revealing the light brown clay under the slip. Audience members walked up to the front to watch her work; her hand moved swiftly, skillfully. After finishing the fish, she began to carve out cloud-shaped flourishes along the edge of bowl.
While she carved a design to fill with a different colored clay, You rolled her piece along a giant foam pad to keep the design intact. On one piece, she carved out peony flowers that engulf a large black vase. Then, she carefully engraved multiple folds in the peonies, filing them like a web of lattice.
“There is no power in the hand; it’s a feeling,” You’s translator told the audience.
University senior and art major Ben Cooper attended the demonstration to see other ways of working on pottery, which he has been making for five years.
“I wanted to see a more traditional way of working with clay,” Cooper said. “I think that history cannot be overlooked.”
In traditional Korean art, the peony is the king of flowers, symbolizing wealth. The fish represents the passing of the civil service exams, which played an integral part in gaining aristocratic status in Korean society during the Goryeo period. Other motifs on celadon ware include the crane for longevity as the highest ranking among birds and the lotus flower for honor and loyalty.
“It’s very important to maintain the honors of the Korean tradition,” You said in explanation of the recurrent use of certain motifs in her work.
Eugene resident and cartoonist Louis Nosce, who regularly visits the museum and recently started working on ceramics as a hobby, said he learned some new techniques at the demonstration.
“I’m amazed at the work here; it’s so intricate,” Nosce said.
Nosce said he was glad to have the chance to try the engraving technique on one of the tiles handed out to audience members. After engraving an image of a woman with flowing hair, he glazed the scratches on the tile with the clay slip, coloring her hair black, her skin pink and the sky blue. He discovered that his plastic museum clip made a suitable tool to scrape off the excess slip.
University senior and magazine major Kellyn Gross, who has dabbled in pottery over the past 10 years, admired You’s handmade tools and spontaneity in carving.
“She said she decides from the vessel, and what she feels from it, what she’s going to create,” Gross said. “Even working with traditional shapes, there’s a lot of creativity in it.”