Celadon Vessel: Yeollimun Mixed-Clay Technique, 2023
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This work is chosen by those who find significance in the moment when disciplined structure allows the material itself to speak.
"The vessel seems less patterned than stratified, as though layers of earth had been drawn upward into form."
Kim Yong Seop’s Celadon Vessel: Yeollimun Mixed-Clay Technique, 2023 reduces the visual language of Yeollimun to its most essential elements: clay, vertical rhythm, curvature and depth of colour. In contrast to related works in which cranes or other motifs enter the composition, this vessel contains no figurative intervention. Its subject is the movement already present within the material.
That decision fundamentally changes how the work is encountered.
The eye is not directed towards an image placed upon the surface, but towards the surface as evidence of formation. The mixed-clay pattern appears as bands, eddies and irregular tonal passages that run beneath the glaze. Dark and light areas meet without becoming entirely uniform, creating an impression of internal circulation.
This quality can recall marble or veined stone, particularly in the deeper passages of blue-green and charcoal. Yet unlike stone, whose veining is geological and fixed, Yeollimun records a process shaped through human judgement. The apparent naturalness of the surface is therefore carefully constructed.
This tension between natural appearance and deliberate control is central to the work.
Different clays must remain sufficiently distinct to preserve their individual colours, yet sufficiently integrated to form a stable vessel. Too much blending would diminish the clarity of the pattern; insufficient integration would compromise the unity of the clay body. Yeollimun therefore depends upon restraint: the maker must know not only how to manipulate the material, but when to stop.
Kim introduces a second order through the carved vertical ribs.
Beginning close to the foot and extending almost continuously towards the shoulder, these narrow grooves organise the mixed-clay flow into repeated columns. Their regularity immediately contrasts with the softer, less predictable movement beneath them. The surface becomes a meeting between two temporalities: the flowing memory of manipulated clay and the later intervention of measured carving.
Neither dominates.
The mixed-clay pattern prevents the ribs from becoming mechanical, while the ribs prevent the pattern from dissolving into pure accident. The work finds its character precisely between these two conditions.
The silhouette reinforces this relationship.
The lower body rises with a comparatively straight, disciplined ascent, giving the vessel a sense of vertical stability. Higher up, the body begins to expand more fully before turning inward through the shoulder. This shift is gradual rather than abrupt. The profile moves from near-linearity into curvature, allowing the viewer to feel the form change rather than simply observe it.
This is one of the strongest aspects of the vessel.
At the lower body, the vertical ribs emphasise firmness and direction. As they travel upwards, the curvature of the shoulder bends their trajectory towards the small neck. What begins as parallel ascent becomes convergence. The geometry of the carving therefore changes through the geometry of the vessel itself.
The short flared mouth provides the final release. After the accumulated vertical pressure of the body, the neck contracts and the lip opens slightly outward. It is a small gesture, but an important one: the form gathers, narrows, and then opens again.
Seen from a distance, the vessel appears dark, compact and highly composed. At closer range, that composure begins to fragment into numerous small events: streaks of lighter clay, darkened folds, minute variations in the ribs and reflections travelling across the glaze.
The darkness of the palette contributes significantly to this experience. A lighter Yeollimun vessel might emphasise fluidity and openness; here, the deeper colour gives the object greater visual density. The surface appears almost mineral, as though the clay possesses an interior weight beyond its physical mass.
Yet the glaze prevents this density from becoming heavy. Reflections move across the ribbed exterior, producing alternating bands of brilliance and shadow. Depending on the angle of viewing, the mixed-clay pattern may seem pronounced in one area and nearly disappear in another.
Rotation therefore becomes part of understanding the vessel.
No single frontal view fully explains the relationship between ribs, clay and curvature. As the object is turned, the vertical lines remain constant while the irregular internal pattern continuously changes. One belongs to order; the other to variation.
Kim Yong Seop’s 2023 vessel can therefore be understood as a study in controlled transformation. Clay is mixed without losing distinction, carved without losing movement, and shaped into a profile that moves from vertical stability towards curved closure.
Its quietness is deliberate.
With no figurative motif to mediate the encounter, the work returns ceramic attention to something more fundamental: how earth can be persuaded into rhythm while still retaining the memory of having once been fluid.
Dimension
- Diameter- 17 cm (6.69 inch)
Height- 24cm (9.45 inch)
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