Humans are emotional creatures. Individuals feel a diverse range of emotions even during a short time or on a small occasion. Emotions are formed naturally through many experiences of individuals and there are an innumerable number of ways to express emotions. Of these, the artist’s task is to conduct analysis of these experiences from the perspective of emotion and to sensitively materialize them.
My work is based on psychological observations that are representative of voices we all hear inside. I make ceramic figurative sculptures that describe emotions from my life as a diary. By exploring expressive possibilities of my visual language, the figurative form and its multi-colored surfaces reveal the abstracted version of my interiority.
Creation of ceramics requires endurance. Looking at its chemical changes through the process of firing, it is a creature granted with invisible power, which means its outcome belongs to nature. Ceramics are regenerated by fire, the most fundamental aspect of nature. Borrowing human hands, it cannot create emotions unless the will or passion of the artist is naturally melted down upon it.
Through my works, I aim to express the topic of emotions outwardly by attempting to describe a various range of psychological states existing in our environment with visual formation of colors and figurative form.
Bio
Ahrong Kim is currently an Artist in Residence at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA where she currently lives and works. Prior to this, she received the Mima Weissmann Award at the Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard in 2013. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Ceramics from Kon Kuk University in Korea in 2008 and her Master of Fine Arts Degree from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, RI in 2013. Recent exhibitions of her work include “East Meets West” at the George Billis Gallery in Manhattan, NY, “Beyond the Brickyard” at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT, “China-Korea, Invitational Exhibition: Heritage and Diversity” at Hanyang University Museum in Seoul, Korea, and “Visions in Clay” at LH Jr Horton Gallery in Stockton, CA, where her work ‘Virginity’ was chosen for the Best of Show Award in addition to being featured at “The 8th Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale (GICB 2015) – Color; Ceramic Spectrum” in 2015 in Yeoju, Korea.
