(Picture credit score: Moon Jar by Yun Jucheol)
The traditional image got here to face for simplicity and Korea’s post-colonial nationwide id. Now a brand new era of artists are re-interpreting this iconic sculptural type, writes Clare Dowdy.
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Centuries-old and steeped in cultural significance, the South Korean moon jar (dal-hang-ari in Korean) continues to be giving the nation’s potters and artists pause for thought. In pottery phrases, it is a deceptively easy merchandise: two massive clay rice bowl shapes are put collectively rim to rim within the kiln, explains Lloyd Choi, curator of a brand new exhibition in London on moon jars, and “gravity does the remainder”. Sometimes, the pale clay is glazed however left unadorned, trying somewhat like a full moon.
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In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the moon jar sheds mild on Korean id. They had been first made in the course of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). At the moment, Korea adopted the neo-Confucian perception system. Propagated by Chinese language thinker Confucius within the sixth to fifth Century BCE, the meditative Confucian beliefs of simplicity, humbleness, modesty, purity and austerity had unfold past China to Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
The hanging work of Yun Ju-cheol is included within the Cromwell Place exhibition, Moon Jar: The Untold Story, which is a part of London Craft Week (Credit score: Dan Fontanelli)
Most ceramics within the area had been of plain white porcelain, however within the 18th Century, the nation’s elite began to develop a brand new, distinctly Korean id. The moon jars started to tackle the significance they’ve now, as they embodied these Confucian beliefs.
By the seventeenth and 18th Centuries, somewhat than perfection, naturalism and spontaneity had been the popular aesthetic. By then, it was about “the power to simply accept the imperfections of nature, and admire the sweetness in that”, says Choi. The moon jars epitomised this mind-set. As a result of whereas they had been minimal, they weren’t an identical. All handmade on the wheel, they’d shrink and sag within the firing so that every one had a definite, barely asymmetrical form. And across the center was a visual horizontal seam the place the 2 hemispherical halves had been joined.
In the meantime, the globular type’s floor was white, which in Korea represents simplicity and asceticism. That is in distinction to a lot Chinese language porcelain, which was extremely adorned.
The jars had each ceremonial and utilitarian roles, Choi explains. In royal palaces, they had been displayed as vases when overseas dignitaries had been visiting. And extra virtually, they may very well be used to retailer dry items resembling rice.
The moon jar’s more moderen symbolism is tied up with Twentieth-Century occasions. Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan from 1910 to 1945. Through the occupation, Koreans struggled to regain their independence, whereas the Korean language was banned, and Koreans had been conscripted into the occupiers’ workforce or as uniformed troopers within the Pacific Struggle. Joseon culture and artwork had been portrayed in a unfavourable mild by colonial Japanese officers and intellectuals, and its assets had been pillaged.
Simplicity of type and texture is a characteristic of conventional Korean pottery, in keeping with artist Choi Bo-Ram (Credit score: Choi Bo-Ram)
“The fashioning of this ceramic as a South Korean cultural icon was in direct response to liberation from 35 years of colonial rule in 1945,” when Japan surrendered to the People, says Sol Jung, assistant curator of Japanese artwork on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of Asian Artwork.
It was after the Korean Struggle of 1950-53 (when North invaded South) that the moon jar grew to become synonymous with South Korean cultural id, he provides.
The primary era of South Korean potters within the post-colonial, post-war period started to check moon jars with contemporary eyes, and to recreate them. The pioneering summary painter Kim Whan-ki collected these ceramics and featured them in his work, and is broadly credited for coining the time period “moon jar”. Different modern painters like Choi Younger Wook have taken moon jars as their material.
Moonstruck
In the meantime, the jars had been additionally gaining new followers within the West. British potter Bernard Leach, who was born in Hong Kong, had lived and labored in Japan for a few years within the first half of the Twentieth Century, and in addition travelled to Korea. He collected Korean ceramics and furnishings, together with a moon jar with a diameter of 44.5cm, now held at London’s British Museum.
Its ubiquity, recognition and hyperlink to cultural id imply that “the moon jar is now a quintessential Korean object”, says Jung, and has turn into “the focus of museum exhibitions and gallery areas that includes Korean artwork”. It even made an look on the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the place the official Olympic cauldron lit in the course of the opening ceremony was common to appear to be an enormous moon jar on stilts.
Park Sung-wook makes moon jars utilizing a technique that originated within the Joseon Dynasty (Credit score: Dan Fontanelli)
Its very significance has meant that it has turn into an iconic form for Korean potters. “These artists have felt the necessity to ‘tackle’ the moon jar,” says Choi. “The moon jar has solid a protracted shadow over the individuality of recent potters. Everybody needs to make the moon jar, they’ve virtually forgotten about their very own inventive inspiration.” Nevertheless, her feeling is that when it has been addressed, “they need to transfer on. We have to let the shape go.”
In her exhibition, Moon Jar: The Untold Story, six modern Korean makers present how they’re reinventing the standard vessel in their very own approach. Creations by trendy masters Ree Soo-jong and Lee Gee-jo sit alongside these by Yun Ju-cheol and Park Sung-wook, in addition to work by two younger feminine artists Choi Bo-ram and Kwak Hye-young. The exhibition is accompanied by movies of those creatives at work, during which they clarify their causes for approaching this topic.
In his movie, Ree Soo-Jong explains that as an alternative of forming an ideal circle, moon jars are certain to have an asymmetrical type, which makes them distinctive in comparison with different porcelain work. “What makes my moon jars much more distinctive is that I deliberately go away the pure patterns that happen when the 2 massive bowls are related.”
Trendy grasp Ree Soo-jong says that his moon jars are deliberately asymmetrical (Credit score: Dan Fontanelli)
Park Sung-wook makes moon jars within the Buncheong Dumbung style, which first appeared within the early Joseon Dynasty. It includes dipping the vessel right into a white clay resolution. “Numerous fascinating issues go on in the course of the course of. The slip generally drips down on to the floor,” he says within the movie. “Typically it soaks into the pottery and there are occasions when the form itself turns into a bit distorted in the course of the drying course of.”
Choi Bo-Ram echoes the purpose that a lot conventional Korean pottery has a easy type and easy texture. Somewhat than utilizing a potter’s wheel, she kneads small lumps of clay right into a fundamental lozenge form and squeezes them collectively to construct up a pot. For her, it’s not about conforming to a standard jar form, and she or he doesn’t even glaze them. “As an alternative, I add a sample of random traces on the floor,” she says within the movie. “Many of the patterns include a sequence of related traces.” It appears the traditional, iconic moon jar continues to resonate – and re-shape – in every new period.
Moon Jar: The Untold Story is at Cromwell Place, London, till 14 Could, and is organised with the Korea Craft & Design Foundation. An extra exhibition, Moon Jar: Untold Magnificence, will happen on the similar gallery from 4 to 10 September, exploring the philosophical concepts behind the moon jar.
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