Tell us about your practice and how you came to making?

I am a designer and artist from South Korea, and my practice centers on the idea of function in objects. The objects I create range from those that propose a very clear use to those with their use is opaque. Through this focus in function and my main medium ceramics, I became interested in the surfaces of sanitary ware, which embody some of the most explicit forms of function. In Play Haus, I presented works from the Affording series, where opaque functions are paired with metallic glazes.

I initially began as a sculptor working primarily with clay. However, when I tried to use ceramics purely as a medium of expression, I encountered friction with embedded functional history. I chose to treat this friction not as a limitation but as a driving force.

Do you have a ritual when it comes to making/designing work?

I like to go for a slow walk for about 30 minutes before going to the studio and I often imagine objects in my head during this time. Sometimes the process begins with a problem I want to solve like any other designers; other times it starts from a more intuitive impulse like “it would be cool if there’s something like this.” These unrefined thoughts are later translated into more concrete designs, often through digital modeling.

Many of your pieces present themselves as one thing and turn out to be another — the form promises a function that the object then withholds or subverts. What do you want to happen in that moment of realization for the person interacting with the piece?

If affordance can be understood as a kind of rule or contract that directs behavior, I am interested in the moment when that contract breaks. In that moment, I hope a different mode of interaction emerges. One in which the person no longer simply consumes the object as a tool, but instead begins to negotiate, question, and encounter it as something with its own agency.

Your Affording series takes objects whose use seems obvious and quietly pulls the rug out — making the familiar suddenly uncertain. How did you arrive at affordance as a framework, and what assumptions about everyday objects were you most interested in unsettling?

As I continued to think about function, I became increasingly interested in how the form of an object guides and constrains human behavior. Affordance became a useful framework to understand this dynamic, particularly as a way of describing the subtle power relationship between object and user. What I aim to unsettle is the assumed certainty of function or the almost unconscious belief that an object is there to serve us.

The metallic, iridescent surfaces in your work feel almost alive — they shift depending on light and angle. How do you develop a glaze like that, and how much of the final result are you in control of?

For this project, I used commercial glazes. One of their advantages is the predictable results if the manufacturer’s instructions are followed precisely. I use this stability to design and anticipate certain surface effects, but I do not attempt to fully control the subtle physical transformations that occur in the kiln. The slight deviations between intention and material behavior are, to me, what give the object a sense of vitality.

Some of your series begin with a base form that can be varied and recombined — a kind of modular openness. What appeals to you about that structure, and does working within a system like this ever feel constraining, or does it do the opposite?

This project is based on variations derived from a single mold. Although the works are produced within a standardized system, each piece has a sense of uniqueness making each of them a “special edition.” That paradox is what I find most compelling.

For me, systems and molds function both as constraints and as measures. The physical limitation of a mold acts like a kind of gravity: it prevents the work from dispersing too far, while at the same time provoking attempts to resist or exceed that limitation. It is within this tension that unexpected forms often emerge.

Is there anything you’ve dreamed of making, but haven’t yet?

I would like to work with tiles. I am interested in moving beyond objects toward systems that operate at the scale of architectural surface.

What’s next for you?

I am currently a long-term resident artist at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia. I am developing a series of functional wares(not a joke) for the functional gallery at the studio using a modular mold system I previously established while working with Rude Haus. At the same time, I am utilizing the 3D fabrication facilities at the studio, incorporating clay printing into my process. I am interested in how these parallels will intersect, and how the results will unfold!