2021 Emerging Artist: Daeun Lim Daeun Lim

Daeun Lim, Busan, South Korea

Ceramics Monthly: Who is your ideal audience?

Daeun Lim: Thinking of the audience makes me think about how artwork relates to the world outside the studio and what realities it might bring. I believe the final step of finishing a piece is connecting with others, and I try not to envision specific people at this step. My works consist of eccentric and humorous contexts, so I would say anyone who would be generous enough to view and find joy in it can be my ideal audience.

CM: What is the most challenging aspect of working in clay?

DL: Hanging around in front of a closed kiln door is the most challenging thing I find in the process of making ceramics. In the process of completing a work, the time that clay is in my hands is relatively short compared with the time that it stays out of them—in the kiln to get fired. When it is time for the firing, I need to leave, wait, and wish it well, helpless in some ways.

CM: What do you think the role of a maker is within our current culture and how do you think you contribute to it?

DL: I see my work as a reaction to the dominant convention of ceramics. What matters is not only the visual satisfaction from the work’s physical existence, but also the narrative I endow when building it.

I seek the answer to this question in the narrative a maker’s work can bring. An artist who constantly adds new objects to the world, where new products are overflowing, can have a meaningful and beneficial impact because of the story they have put into the works. This story can reflect, react to, and redirect the paths of people’s lives from a day-to-day context to a more complex cultural perspective.

To learn more, visit www.daeunworks.com.