Young-Jae Lee
Spindle vases
13 Nov 2008 - 08 Feb 2009
Following her exciting installation of 1111 bowls in the Rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne in 2006, the Korean potter Young-Jae Lee will be exhibiting further examples of her work:
Again, the show is about variations on a single design form, this time that of the spindle vase. From 54 individual pieces Young-Jae Lee has developed a minimalist-conceptual, numbers-magical room installation especially for the Rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne.
In taking up the theme of the spindle vase, the artist, who has been living and working in Germany for the past thirty years, is referring to the traditional jar form of ancient Korea, whereby two separately made bowls are joined up in a way similar to bringing together two arched palms of the hand. As a result, they create a spindle-shaped contour and form an encased hollow space.
Through this reference to tradition, Young-Jae Lee links the pursuit of harmony to the joining of the two bowls, coming close to pure beauty in colour and form. In her hands the design of these ancient storage jars, known as »moon bowls«, gains the force of a sculpture, the individuality of a masterpiece.
No one piece is like another. Nevertheless, there are considerable similarities between the vases which are produced by Young-Jae Lee as a series in a limited space of time. The serial nature of the Korean potter’s work reveals an almost meditative discourse with the boundaries of the medium of clay.
Young-Jae Lee makes each spindle vase as a two-part piece of ceramics: The artist joins the two separately moulded halves, each resembling wide bowls, while the clay is still malleable. In doing so, she roughs the surface of their rims in order to facilitate the joining of the two bowls, one of which is placed upside down on the other. She then has to break through the base of the inverted bowl designated as the top half of the vase, widen the hole and sculpt an opening. The double vase created in the process looks like a spindle. To ensure that the two halves fit together properly to form a spindle vase, she has to produce for each vase two bowls of the same diameter and more or less the same height and volume.
On closer inspection, one can detect small traces of where the master ceramicist has gently pressed her hands on the bowls to mould the two halves of the spindle vases into a single entity.
The individual spindle vases in this synchronous series differ considerably in height, breadth and diameter, thus making each one an original.
Again, the show is about variations on a single design form, this time that of the spindle vase. From 54 individual pieces Young-Jae Lee has developed a minimalist-conceptual, numbers-magical room installation especially for the Rotunda of the Pinakothek der Moderne.
In taking up the theme of the spindle vase, the artist, who has been living and working in Germany for the past thirty years, is referring to the traditional jar form of ancient Korea, whereby two separately made bowls are joined up in a way similar to bringing together two arched palms of the hand. As a result, they create a spindle-shaped contour and form an encased hollow space.
Through this reference to tradition, Young-Jae Lee links the pursuit of harmony to the joining of the two bowls, coming close to pure beauty in colour and form. In her hands the design of these ancient storage jars, known as »moon bowls«, gains the force of a sculpture, the individuality of a masterpiece.
No one piece is like another. Nevertheless, there are considerable similarities between the vases which are produced by Young-Jae Lee as a series in a limited space of time. The serial nature of the Korean potter’s work reveals an almost meditative discourse with the boundaries of the medium of clay.
Young-Jae Lee makes each spindle vase as a two-part piece of ceramics: The artist joins the two separately moulded halves, each resembling wide bowls, while the clay is still malleable. In doing so, she roughs the surface of their rims in order to facilitate the joining of the two bowls, one of which is placed upside down on the other. She then has to break through the base of the inverted bowl designated as the top half of the vase, widen the hole and sculpt an opening. The double vase created in the process looks like a spindle. To ensure that the two halves fit together properly to form a spindle vase, she has to produce for each vase two bowls of the same diameter and more or less the same height and volume.
On closer inspection, one can detect small traces of where the master ceramicist has gently pressed her hands on the bowls to mould the two halves of the spindle vases into a single entity.
The individual spindle vases in this synchronous series differ considerably in height, breadth and diameter, thus making each one an original.