Sangwook Huh, Republic of Korea

Vessel with Plantain Surface Decoration

2019

Clay, white slip, silver lustre

370 × 370 × 375 mm

A creative response to Vessel with Plantain Surface Decoration by Brad Phillips

My grandfather brought a jar back from the war. The War. Pale blue, pale purple, the only thing in his home without function. He kept it next to a box of medals. I don’t know if they were his. I don’t know where he got the jar. He never spoke about the war. He drank too much whiskey and he smoked a pipe. Sometimes before bed I’d see him holding the jar, and there were tears. Decades later I understand, inside that jar he kept his war stories. He’s gone now. The jar too.

With a primary focus on ceramic traditions from Korea, Sangwook Huh infuses ideas around evolution into his creations. Central to his work is the practice of buncheong and the animated motifs and bakji sgraffito techniques. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and biennales around the world and can be found in public collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, and the Gyeonggi Ceramic Museum.