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The Narrow Gate
Ceramics
I don't know exactly how ceramic sculpture became my major means of expression. When I started throwing on a wheel in my first ceramics class a long time ago, my professor said to me, "You have Silla potters' blood." He revered the Korean ceramic tradition, and as a Korean I was also very much aware of it. However, I did not become a very good potter. Instead I became more and more attracted to ceramic sculpture. What did I sense in clay work? I now reflect and realize that it must have been its great potential to express perennial human conditions and ideas. Clay has been a part of civilization for such a long time, and, metaphorically speaking, aren't we made of clay, or at least will we not return to clay? I have focused on making architectural structures and spaces. Sometimes in that setting a figure or two appear and sit quietly leaning against a wall. I want my work to speak to people very softly and beautifully, like a murmur, like a deep echo in a cave, about not necessarily soft or beautiful truths about life.
--Nan-Young Kim