Moon jar. Glazing and firing.

 

When the two halves were joined together the jar was very heavy. I carved down the jar significantly, inwardly and outwardly which helped slightly to reduce its weight. It’s become apparent through this process that throwing the halves rather than coil building would be much more effective, both for the fineness and the movement of the jar. The flow of the wheel would allow the form its movement once assembled. They need to move as you walk around them.

It is a lovely thing to hold. And it’s asymmetry allows for the bumps and grooves to be seen as you walk around it.

When you look in from the top, the space inside is like looking into a giant pit, like falling off a cliff into a deep lagoon. There was something relating to rock formations in looking into this hole. The ceramicist Mitch Iburg makes a lot of large jars, with local materials, and has studied kettle holes in relation to this part of large jars, the openings of vessels. The drop over edge of the rim into the big empty belly. I will make more of these large rounded jars in the future.

 

 

Mitch Iburg on kettle holes: “These holes were carved into solid stone by fast moving flood waters and rapids carrying large amounts of rock debris. Loose stones slowly chipped away at the exposed rock until becoming trapped in the hole itself. As currents continued over time, trapped stones and sediments consistently ground away the surrounding bedrock, creating a wide range of cavernous volumes now exposed and eroded along the banks of ancient rivers.

(from: his personal instagram account –  https://www.instagram.com/p/B37Og6LHok3/)

Kettle holes relationship to metaphors surrounding vessels.

 

 

Moon jars have an essential presence in the Korean history of ceramics.

Made of porcelain, thrown of two halves which are then joined. They are joined together so that the line of the join is visible often. Usually to contain flowers or wine, but they are also votive, ritual vessels.

From Jisu Hong’s article The Evolution of Moon Jars in Korean Ceramics :

the adopted ‘moon jar’ in Korean art seeks to minimize insincere traces by reviving natural beauty, and has become a symbol of the rejection of artificiality.”

As written by Simon Olding of the artist Young Sook Park in the article The ‘Moon Jar’: A Transcendent Ceramic Form:

“The Moon Jar in Young Sook Park’s deeply skilled hands is both a singular example and a type. It is a symbol of purity through reticence, of an august serenity that has respected the past and yet might appeal to a present hope for calm and reflection. The Moon Jar plays a vital part in her repertoire of vessels: perhaps now at the core of her practice. Her Moon Jars, in graduated sequences of sizes up to the largest-possible, are universally recognized to be the purest representations of a singular and deeply symbolic form. This is a pot of tranquil force; a pot of the night sky.”

A particularly well-known moon jar in Britain, is the one purchased by Bernard Leach in Seoul in 1935.

“Leach’s Moon Jar played out a particular narrative: it represented the apogee of work by the anonymous craftsman and thus took its place in the pantheon of Korean ‘folk craft’; and it echoed the reticence of European modernism, such that its loan to Rie seemed inevitable. It may also have carried an emotional message: a gift to a deeply-loved friend.”

 

(https://www.phillips.com/article/10680842/the-moon-jar-a-transcendent-ceramic-form#:~:text=Moon%20Jars%20were%20originally%20made,jars%20resembling%20a%20full%20moon.&text=Moon%20Jars%2C%20due%20to%20their,the%20join%20is%20often%20visible.)

 

Lucie Rie sat in her London studio in 1989 next to Leach’s gifted moon jar.

 

(Photograph by Lord Snowdon, image source: https://smarthistory.org/white-porcelain-moon-jar/)

 

There is also a relationship between the moon jar and the Confucian aesthetic and principles.

Confucian aesthetic research:

“Confucian practice is aesthetic in nature since it entails cultivating the self through the practice of ritual and art.”

“The early Confucians stressed that rituals and arts must be practiced if one is to become fully human. The arts provide the polish that human beings need in order to become humane or ren. Seen this way, ritual and artistic practices work hand-in-hand to develop a moral sense and ultimately to bring about a state of social harmony. This, in turn, raises the question of whether or not this approach does justice to the power of art to generate intense aesthetic experiences.”

(The above quotes are from the paper Carrying the Jade Tablet: A Consideration of  Confucian Artistry by Eric C. Mullis)

 

“Its white color suggests the Confucian virtues of purity, honesty, and modesty, and the form was thought to represent the fertility and embracing, gentle qualities of women.”

(https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia/korea-japan/joseon-dynasty/a/moon-jar)

 

 

It feels that there is a combination of philosophy and sentimental value in the moon jar, its history and material culture.

(https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/03/09/culture/artsDesign/moon-jar-joseon-pottery/20210309170700446.html)

 

 

Prepping the slip, jar, and glazing the inside by pouring out. These are stills from some videos I have been taking of myself making in the studio.

 

 

 

 

Brushing the outside with Lahemaa clay glaze.

 

 

 

Drawing of an erased moon jar, redrawn and erased repeatedly until its outline is worn into the paper by its erosion.

This was an attempt to further explore the quiet pot drawings. To try to capture the quietness I am looking for in my making. The drawing is present through having been erased. I feel that this holds a lot of what I am doing with my installations of pieces in the landscape, through their erosion they are present.

 

 

 

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