Celadon Double-Walled Openwork Lidded Jar: Chrysantimum Motif, 2024

Those who choose this work are often less interested in immediate spectacle than in the moment when repeated detail begins to reveal how an object was actually made.

"At first there is a field of chrysanthemums; only afterwards does one notice the second vessel waiting quietly behind them."

Kim Young-soo’s 2024 Celadon Double-Walled Openwork Lidded Jar: Chrysanthemum Motif begins with an unusually simple decision: to take one flower and allow it to occupy nearly the entire outer body. What makes the jar complex is not the number of different motifs, but the amount of variation, calculation and handwork contained within that repetition.

The chrysanthemum blossoms are arranged closely enough to read as a continuous floral field. Yet the surface is not continuous at all. Between the flowers are carefully opened spaces, and through them the inner ceramic body becomes visible. The first impression is therefore decorative; the second is structural.

That distinction matters.

Kim’s double-walled method begins with two separate vessels. The inner jar must remain complete, while the outer body is formed independently and positioned around it with a controlled interval between the two. The outer section is opened, fitted and joined before its surface is progressively pierced and worked. Once the openings have been made, the maker can no longer treat the exterior simply as a wall of clay. Every remaining section carries part of the structural burden.

In this jar, the repeated chrysanthemums solve that problem visually as well as technically. The flowers create a regular rhythm across the body, but the clay left between them also maintains continuity around the circumference. Looking closely, one begins to understand that the pattern cannot be separated from the construction. The chrysanthemums are not merely placed on the outer shell; they help define what the outer shell has become.

The treatment of the petals makes this especially clear. Kim has applied white slip to the individual flower forms, giving them a slightly raised, rounded surface. The effect is restrained in colour — pale against pale blue-green — yet pronounced in texture. Light catches the petal ridges, while the spaces immediately behind them fall into shadow.

This is one of the unusual pleasures of the work. It can be understood visually from a distance, but ownership introduces another way of knowing it. Under the fingertips, the rows of chrysanthemums are not perfectly flat or mechanically repeated. Their relief has a slight physical variation from one bloom to the next. The surface records the repeated action of the hand.

The choice of the chrysanthemum also suits this treatment. In Korean culture, the flower has long been connected with longevity, dignity and constancy. Those qualities are not illustrated narratively here. Instead, they are embedded in the way the flower is repeated: patiently, persistently and without allowing a single bloom to dominate the whole.

The lid extends the same logic on a smaller and more concentrated scale. Around the central knop, clustered floral forms and pierced sections create a dense upper register. Its rounded edge then meets the broader solid band beneath, creating a short visual pause before the chrysanthemum field of the main body begins.

That pause is useful. Without it, the vessel could easily become too busy. Kim leaves enough solid celadon around the upper section for the eye to rest, allowing the openwork below to retain definition. The alternation between pierced and unpierced areas gives the jar its composure.

The inner vessel becomes more noticeable as the viewer changes position. Seen directly from the front, it appears largely as darkness behind the flowers. From an angle, more of its blue-green curved surface is revealed. The openwork therefore does not simply produce holes; it creates a shallow space between two ceramic bodies, one exterior and highly worked, the other interior and comparatively quiet.

The lid changes the experience once more when it is removed. The vessel then reveals the intact inner chamber that makes the entire outer structure possible. What had appeared from outside as shadow becomes a complete functional volume. The technical logic of the jar, largely concealed when closed, suddenly becomes much easier to understand.

This relationship between the visible and the concealed is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Kim’s double-walled work. The craftsmanship is evident on the exterior, but part of its achievement remains inside, supporting everything that can be seen.

For all its intricacy, the jar does not need a complicated narrative. Its subject is remarkably clear: one flower, repeated across two ceramic layers, shaped by a long sequence of small decisions. The chrysanthemum gives the vessel its image; the space behind it gives the image depth; and the white-slip petals retain the quiet evidence of the maker’s hand.

Dimensions

• Height- 17 cm (6.69 inch)
• Diameter- 15 cm (5.91 inch)