Celadon Double-Walled Openwork Long Neck Vessel: Chrysanthemum Motif

This work is chosen by those who are drawn to objects in which technical difficulty has been absorbed so completely that effort gives way to composure.

"The vessel seems to flower from its own surface, each opening allowing the inner form to breathe through the outer one."

In this celadon vessel by Icheon ceramic master Kim Young-Soo, the chrysanthemum is not applied as an image upon a completed surface. It becomes the surface itself.

The object begins with a familiar ceramic logic: a stable foot, a rounded body and a long neck rising from the shoulder. Yet almost immediately that solidity is questioned. Much of the outer body has been removed, leaving behind an elaborate field of flowers whose petals define what remains of the vessel’s visible skin.

This transformation is made possible through the double-wall openwork method. An inner vessel is first formed as the structural core. A second outer body is created separately, opened and fitted around it, then carefully rejoined. Only after this relationship between inner and outer volumes has been established can the exterior be progressively pierced.

The difficulty lies in subtraction. Every removed section reduces the strength of the outer wall, yet insufficient removal would deny the work the openness on which its visual character depends. The maker must therefore calculate absence as carefully as material.

Kim’s treatment of the chrysanthemum intensifies this challenge. Rather than relying upon the reassurance of a regular geometric grid, the outer body is organised through numerous flower heads of subtly differing scale. The surrounding clay is removed so that the blossoms remain, their petals projecting into the spaces around them.

This distinction is central to the work. The flowers are not simply cut into the vessel; they are what survives the cutting.

The resulting surface sits somewhere between skin and structure. At certain angles the flowers overlap so densely that the vessel appears almost solid. At others, openings suddenly become prominent and the darker inner body appears behind the celadon exterior. Looking therefore becomes a movement between concealment and disclosure.

The white slip applied to the petals strengthens this layered perception. The pale floral details catch the eye first, while the blue-green glaze binds the surface together. The darker intervals behind them then reveal the inner vessel, producing three perceptual levels: flower, opening and interior.

This is why the chrysanthemum is particularly effective here. Within Korean visual tradition, the flower has long carried associations of endurance, longevity and the integrity of remaining in bloom as the year advances towards winter. In this work, its symbolic meaning is reinforced by structure. The flower associated with resilience is literally made to survive through removal: the surrounding body is cut away, yet the blossom remains.

The rounded lower body allows this floral density to accumulate. Because the surface continuously curves away from the viewer, no single viewpoint reveals the entire pattern. Flowers emerge, overlap and disappear around the circumference. The vessel therefore resists being understood at once.

The neck changes this tempo.

Rising from the densely worked body, it is comparatively narrow and controlled. Although not constructed as a double wall, it continues the pierced floral language upwards. The repetition becomes more vertical and compressed before giving way to an undecorated rim. Structurally, this creates continuity; visually, it provides release.

The silhouette consequently works through an exchange between concentration and extension. The rounded body gathers the work into itself, while the neck draws the eye upwards. The flowers do not remain confined to the body but seem to climb towards the mouth, giving the vessel an impression of organic growth without turning it into literal botanical representation.

Its small scale also changes the experience of the technique. On a larger object, openwork can announce itself through distance. Here, the viewer is brought closer. Individual petals, white accents, narrow bridges of clay and dark intervals become legible one by one. Technical risk is condensed into intimate detail.

Light completes the composition. Passing through the outer shell, it falls unevenly across the inner vessel and returns as shadow between the flowers. The work therefore changes throughout the day and with the position of the viewer. What initially seems like a dense floral covering can become porous; what appears ornamental from afar reveals itself as structural at close range.

The vessel ultimately asks to be read as two forms occupying one body: an interior volume that preserves wholeness and an exterior structure that has been opened almost to the limits of stability.

Between them sits the chrysanthemum.

Not merely decoration, it becomes the principle through which the object negotiates strength and vulnerability, surface and depth, repetition and difference. The result is a celadon vessel whose presence lies not in spectacle, but in the remarkable calm with which difficult construction has been made to appear natural.

Dimensions:

• Height- 16.5 cm (6.5 inch)
• Diameter- 11 cm (4.33 inch)