Korean Artist Gives New Life to Shattered Porcelain Fragments by Stitching Them with Gold

Korean artist Yeesookyung is habitual of collecting shards of discarded porcelain and reconfigured them into exciting abstract sculptures. Since 2001, called Translated Vase, these stunning bulbous forms feature a numberless of colors, shapes, and surface designs whose discrete parts all converge into single towering pieces. In spite of their mismatched elements, he work feels unified because of their adhesive; she uses 24-karat gold leaf to line the cracks, reminding the Japanese art of kintsugi a repair method that celebrates the artifact’s history by emphasizing its imperfections.

Therefore, the translated Vase was enthused Yeesookyung’s curiosity in a tradition held by Korean artisans as they finish porcelain works that have slight blemishes in order to keep the infrequency and value of surviving vessels. However, saving these fragments, she puts them back together in “the manner of three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles.” Moreover, she clarifies, “From the moment of destruction, she finds a chance to arbitrate and formulate new narratives with my own translation.” The pieces reemerge as hybrids that sphere the past while rejoicing a gorgeously unconventional future.