4th World Ceramic Biennale

The 4th World Ceramic Biennale opened in South Korea this week. I had some work from my Precious Little series (left) selected for it. All these pieces are really really tiny, between 2-4cm tall, and were an absolute and utter nightmare to make!

The Korean Biennale is a bit of a must-see for ceramic lovers. It’s like Disneyland for ceramicists! Apart from the amazing museums and mind-blowing exhibitions (truly some of the best ceramics I have ever seen in my whole life anywhere ever) there are also workshops, juicy conferences with speakers from all over the world, local ceramic markets, rock bands, glamorous women jumping out of life-sized ceramic jars, blindfolded potters throwing pots on the wheel in front of amazed crowds and all kinds of weird, wild and wonderful things going on! I spent 10 days at the 3rd Biennale and wish I was there again for this one! I came home with a suitcase full of beautiful ceramics, all wrapped up in lovely Korean textiles (which I had to buy to wrap the ceramics in my suitcase to stop them from breaking you see)! While there was a lot of fun and games there was also a serious side to it as well - lots of debate and discussion about the state of the ceramic arts, a really big focus on education and engaging the public in the medium, and an awful lot of quality contemporary international and Korean ceramics. It rocked my world! Unfortunately I didn’t take out the US$50,000 prize money. Yeah, a bit of a bummer that. There goes my early retirement plan….(and yes, that is me above pretending to be a Korean potter - how could I resist having a go at that!!!)