Works

“Traces (痕)” is a body of work developed around a single vessel form shaped on the potter’s wheel. Here, the vessel is not understood as a functional container for holding water or food, but as a body that holds time and traces. A vessel possesses both an interior and an exterior, and through its invisible inner space, it embraces time and memory. This emptiness is not simply an absence, but the space left behind by what has disappeared, as well as a space of possibility where something may dwell again. The various pieces attached to the surface of the work are fragments created through the process of rolling, pressing, and folding slabs of clay. They appear as traces of pressure and time accumulated within the body of the vessel, pushing against its sides and breaking through to the surface. The act of attaching these pieces is therefore not a decorative addition, but a way of giving form to the process through which accumulated time and pressure emerge from within. If the vessel is a body that holds time and pressure, the pieces attached to its surface can be understood as the traces accumulated within that body, pushed outward and made visible. The textures of the repeatedly pressed and folded slabs do not directly reproduce any particular natural form. Rather, they originate from the curves and structures created by the accumulation of time in nature. Like the growth rings of trees, geological strata, eroded rocks, and biological tissues, nature absorbs pressure and transformation over long periods of time, leaving behind its own lines and layers. The textures revealed on the surface of the work are likewise physical traces produced as the clay is pressed, compressed, and folded. These lines are not simply patterns, but records of time left behind through the making process—the result of clay receiving pressure and undergoing transformation. The dark and rough surface evokes ruins, carbonized matter, and ancient geological strata. Yet this darkness does not signify destruction or disappearance alone. The textures flowing across the surface, the deeply carved cavities, and the openings that lead inward are traces of what has disappeared, while at the same time remaining as spaces where new life may come to dwell. The work may appear like a lifeless material, but upon closer observation, it reveals a latent potential for movement and emergence. In this work, the future does not appear as a landscape of polished, perfected technology. Instead, it is imagined as a surface formed through the accumulation of present actions and pressures, wounds and processes of recovery. The traces left by human beings do not disappear completely; they remain within the memory of clay and the earth, taking on different forms. Rather than defining the work simply as a vessel or a sculptural object, the viewer is invited to slowly follow the relationships between the textures left on its surface, the empty space formed within the vessel, and the pieces that appear to have been pushed outward from its body. The work asks not what can be contained, but "what remains". In confronting these traces, it invites reflection on how human time is recorded within the time of the earth, and how what has disappeared may return, in another form, as a place for life.