Koh Woo-Jung is a Korean artist. Her works have exaggerated shapes and Popping colors, with strong impressions. She expresses her own state of mind and the feelings between people through her creation, and clay becomes a tool for her discussion. In secondary school, it was the beginning of her exposure to pottery, but at that time, she mainly focused on making traditional crafts. After entering university and research institute, she established herself as an artist and developed towards ceramic sculpture.
Koh studied pottery in Taiwan and the United States. The difference in environment and culture created a way to convey emotions in her works. At first, she used her works to express her emotions, and then extended her concept to others, not just To express oneself, but to expand the scope of the emotional world.The shapes of the head, face and hands presented in her works are from the observation of people when she first arrived in other countries. When she first arrived in Taiwan or the United States, her language expression was not very fluent, so she often analyzed the current situation and the emotions of the other person by observing the expressions, body movements and even the pitch of others when they speak. And different environments and cultural differences also make her personality different. After her language skills become more proficient, she can begin to use words to explain her feelings. In the past, she may give the right to speak to the works, but then the artist can borrow In Chinese or English, she can speak as she wants, and if she doesn't want to say it, she can use the work, or convert it into words and write it on the work.
In Koh’s work, it can be found that "containers" are the main element, because she thinks that "containers" are used to contain emotions or stories. They should all have a box of their own, and she puts her own state of mind. The emotions of others are packed into different boxes and conveyed to the viewers through clay as a medium.
In the use of colors in works, Koh also has its own three rules: First, use Popping colors; she believes that this can represent a collision between emotions, and there is still uncertainty.The second is to use dark colors; in contrast to bright colors, dark colors represent certain colors and emotions that have been clearly generated. Third, no more than four colors will be used in a work; this will make the intermediate colors disappear.In sharp contrast, just like different human emotions and feelings are sometimes opposed to each other, the artist believes that there are many words in life, and different emotions correspond to different words, and they can coexist with each other, starting from their own feelings. It extends all the way to the emotional discussion between people. Whether in creation or life, Koh repeatedly interacts with others, allowing him to find harmony more flexibly.
Koh Woo-Jung was born in Korea, in 1984. In 2016, he completed his master’s degree from Applied Arts (Ceramics) Department in National Tainan University of Arts.She has a rich of experience with foreign ceramic art exhibitions, including 2021 Changwon Asian Art Festival, <ZOOM IN & OUT>, Seongsan Art Hall, Korea; 《AZURE》2020 Thematic Exhibition of Taiwan Ceramic Society, Taipei, Taiwan. and others.
More works: http://www.yicollecta.com/en/collections/57
Photos ©️ Koh Woo-Jung & YIART
