Fourfold Harmony: As They Became is on view at the Korean Craft Museum, Cheongju
November 5, 2024 – January 14, 2025
Among the countless sage sayings on life, there is an expression that says life comes from the earth and ultimately returns to the earth. The Bible, a long-standing canonical text for humankind, speaks of people and the soil in the Book of Genesis, proving that our history is the history of the earth and its soil. Tracing back the source of life to natural elements extends not only to the earth, but also water, fire, and wind. In Buddhism, it is said that humans are created by the union of earth, water, fire, and wind (地水火風和合成人), and the ancient Greeks claimed that all matter is made up of the four basic elements of water, fire, earth, and air. These are only a few examples, but they illustrate the ways in which various schools of thought in both the East and the West have attempted to find a beginning and an end in nature.
There is a particular form of art that brings together these four natural elements, in which humankind has sought answers regarding their origins in a wondrous unity. Ceramic art, created by the earth and water and baked by fire and wind, is a natural culmination that seems to hold the answer to our origins, and this art form has been a companion of humankind since the very beginning of civilization. With the natural elements of earth, water, fire and wind as a common denominator, life and ceramic art resemble each other like mirror images. Those who live with ceramics seem to live with nature itself, feeling the earth and clay with their whole body, immersing themselves in the product of water, overcoming fire and accepting the wind without being overtly asked to do so. Ceramics is an art of harmony and in 2024, the Korean Craft Museum plans to look into the art and lives of ceramists under its project titled “Chungbuk’s Crafts.“ This exhibition captures the four aspects of ceramic art that play integral roles in our lives, focusing on the four natural elements required when creating ceramics.
Some things are beyond human comprehension. Things we cannot understand include life, art, and also nature. The way nature exists as nature, how nature changes into culture through the hands of people, and the process by which people meet other people within culture to form a collective are all far beyond our understanding. We share our appreciation like the wind that blows between us, we look at each other at equal eye level like flowing water, we expand across the world like a blazing flame, and we enrich our lives with earth and soil imbued with art.
With this exhibition, the Museum is looking to reunite its audience with things that are beautiful and yet so obvious that their value feels suddenly refreshing when pointed out. Through ceramic art, which embodies nature and life and resembles people, we can encounter the unexpected miracles that our world has created. The world began with water, fire, earth, and air. When human hands met nature, art was born, and that encounter constituted us as people. Today, we are presented with the chance to reunite and celebrate all that nature has endowed us with and all the things that we may become.
Contact
+82-43-219-1800
Korean Craft Museum
Culture Factory, 314 Sangdang-ro,
Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do,
Republic of Korea
Photos courtesy of the Korean Craft Museum
