Sculpting dark into light
- Ahrong Kim makes figurative and creative ceramic sculptures
- She expresses deep, dark emotions through her playful pieces
- Her flowers, geometric shapes and abstract patterns draw on Korean motifs
Growing up in South Korea, Ahrong Kim watched her grandmother, the personal seamstress to Prime Minister Yi Beom-seok, transform fabric into intricate creations. Early in her undergraduate studies in Korea, she fell in love with clay, finding that the medium allowed her to express her emotions. Ahrong moved to the USA in 2011 and enrolled in an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. “I could not express myself as easily in English and I felt relieved to be understood through my work,” she says. Now based in New Jersey, Ahrong crafts figurative ceramic sculptures that include Korean themes and a dark mischievous playfulness. Her pieces feature in Rhode Island’s RISD Museum, Massachusetts’ Fuller Craft Museum and New York’s Everson Museum of Art.
Interview
- Can you share a turning point in your career?
- When I entered RISD, I was making life size figures to show off the skills and techniques I had learned in Korea. I made huge pieces with really thin walls. But when I discovered the work of visiting American artist Kathy Butterly, I started thinking differently. From that point forward, I decided to scale down and focus on the details.
- How does your creative process unfold?
- Dark emotions are the starting point, then I do some basic drawings and think about the colours and elements I want to include. I only ever work on one piece at a time. The clay work takes about 20-25 hours. After the bisque firing, I paint with underglazes and glazes, which adds another 25-30 hours. Finally, I fire the piece at least four times.
- What are the key differences between Korean and American teaching practises?
- In Korea, a lot of emphasis is on technique, whereas in the USA, I found there to be greater concern for the conceptual side of things. In the USA, I saw students exploring their ideas and expressing themselves without thinking about technique. That really shocked me at first.
- In what way do you bring this understanding into your teaching?
- When I teach figure sculpting to university-level students, I try to underscore the importance of both technique and the concepts driving their work. I ask my students a lot of questions about the ideas they are exploring, but I also value the craftsmanship.
Ahrong Kim is a master artisan: she began her career in 2004 and she started teaching in 2011
Where
Ahrong Kim
