Translated Vase_2017 TVBGJW 1_Nine Dragons in Wonderland

Fragments are central to Korean artist Yeesookyung’s Translated Vase_2017 TVBGJW_Nine Dragons in Wonderland, an imposing tower of discarded ceramic shards that critiques ideas of beauty, tradition, and perfection traditionally bound with the medium of porcelain. This is the most monumental work from the artist’s ongoing Translated Vase series. During a residency at Albisola, Italy in 2001, Yee worked with a local potter to create vessels based on local Italian residents’ attempts to "translate" their idea of a traditional Korean vase. From these cultural misconceptions and fantasies about the past, Yee began using the discarded fragments of traditional vessels sourced from Korean markets that specialized in historical reproductions made for tourist souvenirs, "frankensteining" these shards to invent strange new forms. Though Yee’s use of gold to join fragments is reminiscent of the Japanese repair technique of kintsugi, the artist uses repair to invent new forms rather than making whole old forms. The use of gold is also a pun: in Korean, the word for "gold" (금) sounds the same as "crack" (금). Active in Korean contemporary art since the 1990s, Yee has gained recognition for her subversive take on globalization and tradition, probing the underlying myths, fantasies, projections, and superstitions that continue to shape contemporary Korean art.