Can you start by introducing yourself and sharing an overview of your artistic practice?
My name is Eun-Ha Paek. I was an animator, illustrator and graphic designer before discovering ceramics. Now I work mainly with ceramics, which I’ve been focused on for the last twelve years. Through them I explore the cause and effect of objects and emotions. In the same way a boulder on a hill stores potential energy, a banana peel on the floor stores potential “ha-has”. Sitting there inert, causing a smirk only when somebody comes in contact with it. My work uses this potential to construct narratives on the precipice of the familiar and strange; to explore grief and hope with humour.
What led you to explore ceramics? Was there a specific moment or inspiration that sparked your interest in working with clay?
I thought it would be fun to have some ceramic poodles to flank our decorative fireplace. Not being able to find any, I signed up for a ceramics class thinking I could just make them. The thinking was: I know how to make 2D art, making it in 3D wouldn’t be that hard. But I was amused by what would emerge from my hands when the poodles made the journey from my imagination into the real world. My hands felt like a rather defective portal, everything came out so different from what was in my head. But I enjoyed the surprise, after having pixel level control on the computer for so long, it was refreshing to not know how things would turn out.
How central is narrative to your practice, and how does it shape your work?
With animation, I explored experimental narratives, trying to get emotions across through the combination of movement, images, time and sound. I want to do the same with the objects I make: they are in arrested motion, displaced from their world into ours, and on the brink of that realization.
Did you receive formal training in ceramics, or did you develop your skills independently?
I learned at a community ceramic center called Greenwich House Pottery in NYC, an institution that’s been around since 1904. In addition to the great workshops and teachers there, it’s inevitable to pick up tips from a community, some of whom have been making ceramics for decades. I also learned by going to ceramic residencies such as Archie Bray Foundation, European Ceramic Work Centre and Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park.
In what ways do your two-dimensional works, like drawings, influence your three-dimensional creations, and vice versa?
Part of the conceit of my hands being a portal from my imagination to our shared reality is that I can’t draw the thing I’m going to make. I don’t want to translate the imagined into a drawing and then make a sculpture of the drawing. Then it would be like the game of telephone where it changes drastically from the original through various translations. I want to capture the gesture of the imagined. But once it’s been actualized, I like to make drawings of them. Because they are now these still lives that I can try to capture in a drawing.
Where do you typically find inspiration for your art? Are there particular themes or sources that resonate with you?
I’m inspired by things that get lost in translation, stemming from having lived in four countries before I was ten. Language was always changing and this made the world seem very dreamlike as a child. I think that’s why I want to make work that seems out of a dream and escape the constructs of language. I want to use the visual vernacular that we use in dreams – metaphorical and disjointed – that alludes to an underlying truth, to describe a small part of existing in this place and time. I like working with ceramics because they have so many inherent associations that I can emphasize and subvert to make emotional objects.
Can you walk us through your creative process, from concept to completion?
An idea pops into my head, I try to make it, it turns out different, but better for it. Or I am embarrassed/unsure about what I am making, and it looks terrible, but the glaze saves it. A lot of it is knowing when to stop and when to keep going.
Where do you create your work? Could you share a bit about your studio or workspace?
I rent a cubicle in a community ceramic studio in Brooklyn. It’s a tight space so my fired work flows over into our home office. I’m preparing for some exhibits so they are taking over more and more of our apartment, even the dining table!
How would you describe the pieces you’ll be exhibiting at County Hall Pottery Gallery? What do you hope viewers take away from them?
I love miniature works because it compels me to look closer. I hope the viewers will be brought into the world of the Mongmong Lassies. “Mongmong” is how dogs bark in Korean. They are variations of the poodles I’ve been making through the years. Because they look more human than doglike, I want to reference that in the title obliquely. They are all very different even though they are cloned in the sense that they are cast from the same mold. Like physical “reflections,” they mirror and repeat but change through each translation/variation. They are about wanting to be the same but different. And are inspired by science fiction, Henry Darger’s Vivian girls and dream states.
Do you have preferred techniques or materials you work with in ceramics? What draws you to these approaches?
I mainly hand build and also incorporate plaster molds for slip casting or press molding. I also 3D print with clay. I was drawn to 3D printing with clay because the artifacts of the process look very similar to coil building. My practice for a time involved coil building and leaving the coils exposed (traditionally, the coil marks get smoothed away, so the building technique is not evident). As I worked this way, I wanted to make the coils smaller and smaller – at a miniature scale, the coil marks seemed like strata, alluding to time passing. I saw I could achieve similar effects with 3D printing and took a workshop that started me down this path. In order to add the gestural to 3D printing, which can look really mechanical and rigid, I set up the files to technically fail so it needs a lot of my help to be realized. It adds an aleatory aspect and each print ends up unique. Emulating the surprise that I used to get when I didn’t quite know how to build things and chance would be the shaping force. I just watch and catch things at the right moment.
What are you currently working on? Are there any upcoming projects or exhibitions we should look forward to?
I am working towards some solo exhibitions and I’m looking forward to being an artist-in-residence at the Arts/Industry program at John Michael Kohler Arts Center this summer!