Craft Video | Ceramicist Yongjun Cho's "Double Openwork Ceramics: Harmony of Tradition and Modernity"

Pottery is not just a work of making clay. It contains thousands of years of tradition and the sincerity of the pottery made in the fire. And today, we're going to meet Cho Yong-joon, a potter, who is inheriting his tradition through a sophisticated technique called double engraving. As an artist who continues his tradition, his life starts with personal philosophy and deep thoughts. It is said that the time when Cho Yong-joon started pottery was the IMF era in 1998. What kind of life and philosophy did he build while walking the path of a potter? Cho Yong-joon, a potter, is the youngest son of Cho Byung-ho, the first master of Yeoju City Pottery. As a second-generation potter, he worked with his father and experienced an important period of connecting life and art. His life as a potter, which began in the economic difficulties of the IMF era, can be said to contain the agony of that era and the artist. Double engraving, just the name of it, reminds me of complexity and delicacy. What does the double engraving in the form of another material in the pottery mean to Cho Yong-joon, a potter? Double engraving is one of the most complex techniques among traditional pottery techniques. It has a pattern on the outside of the pottery and another pottery in it. Due to the double structure of the outer pottery and the inner pottery, the defect rate is very high, and only about 30% is recognized as a work. Double engraving is a work that requires more than two or three times the difficulty of double engraving. I dare say that double engraving is the most difficult work in the field of pottery. As I have been a potter for more than 30 years, my seniors told me that if I look at the artist's work, I can see the artist's new life. Now that I'm here, I think I know a little bit about that. Through my work, I want to show that this person has put something on this work. I want to show that it is possible to succeed only when you grow up and live with such values. I want to show that I am the best in some field, and that is my hope and heart. Double engraving is not just a decorative function, but a combination of light and shadow to bring the vitality of the pottery. Cho Yong-joon, the master of pottery, has developed this technology to an extremely delicate level, and the white porcelain engraved through his touch has a unique artistic value. Traditional pottery mainly has a decorative purpose, but Cho Yong-joon, the master of pottery, also contains his artistic value in practical works used in everyday life. This is a wine glass that combines double engraving. I've been focusing on double engraving since 2010, and before that, I was the head of preparation, and I've been making contests. Most of them were works for decorative objects. I was wondering if there was a way to promote double engraving while having an exhibition. I thought about it, and I came up with a wine glass and a cup for drinking tea. Because it is useful, I think it is necessary to make the best use of wine, bowls, and rice. I thought a lot about how to increase the value of using it, and I thought a lot about how to make a not-so-glamorous, but glamorous pottery. In order to do that, I tried to make it look glamorous through delicacy while adding the least amount of color. Cho Yong-joon, the master of pottery, is expanding traditional pottery techniques into practical areas in modern life. Double-engraved wine glasses are a representative example of both practicality and artistry. These delicate works well show the goal of Cho Yong-joon, who wants to give artistic value to practical objects beyond simple wine glasses. Most of the wine glasses are molded. I'm going to show you all the work in the water, and I'm going to mold the outer bowl where the wine is put in the upper part of the wine glass. After molding, I measure the height and size of the wine glass, and then I mold the wine glass that will be put in the upper part of the wine glass. Lastly, I mold the handle part that supports the wine glass, and then I dry it for a day. After drying, I use a chisel and a trimmer to attach the three objects one by one, and the molding process is finished. The most important thing there is that you can make the shape of the wine glass by pouring water all the way to the base. If you do that, you can bend the handle part because there are two objects on top of each other. In order to complement that, I made it separately and worked on it in an empty form, so the bending phenomenon decreased a lot. So it's difficult, but I'm making a separate handle. After molding, the wine glass is secured through the initial re-molding process, and finally, the double-molded wine glass is completed. The double-molding process requires detailed design and careful process management, not just one pottery production. His work, which was born through this process, is recognized for its technical perfection. It's a little hard to work with traditional pottery. But I don't think it's a good idea to take everything out and go to the modern world as a traditional potter. So I'm trying to express a part of tradition as much as possible with modern sophistication. That way, it's easy to approach when you go out into the world, and you can see that it's Korean. I'm trying not to lose my identity. Pottery is an art that inherits tradition and communicates with modernity. What advice would artisans who have walked the path of craftsmanship for a long time like Cho Yong-joon pottery tell their juniors? Whether you're going to go to a traditional pottery, or you're going to go to the modern world, or you're going to go to the tableware. I think we need to decide quickly through experience. After that, we need to learn the basics. You can go faster than others with your sense, but if you don't stick to the basics, you won't be able to catch up. I hope you stick to the basics. And then there's the human value that goes with it. I hope you'll go along with that. His advice is not limited to junior potters. It provides a deep insight that can be applied to all of us. Art is a reflection of life, and it contains philosophy and values. Setting the direction clearly and constantly touching the basics on the road. He says this is the most important driving force for him to grow as a potter and even as an artist. And at the end of the journey, there will be a moment of real self-discovery as an artist, not as a potter.