🎧 2023 Emerging Artist: Audrey An, Brighton, Massachusetts Ceramics Monthly

Appears in the May 2023 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Audrey An: The nostalgic, the curious, and the explorer.

As a 1.5 generation Korean-American, an in-betweener immigrant, I use my work to examine my upbringing of moving between the US and South Korea. Much of my inspiration is derived from moments that I excavate from childhood memories and cultural history. For example, audiences who were exposed to American cartoons in the 1990s might recognize Barney, and audiences who have had Asian pears before would notice the subtle difference between Western and East-Asian pears. When I coil-build, I want these thought-objects to evoke a sense of familiarity and make audiences question why these disparate signifiers are physically collaged into a curated furniture-scape and what story they are trying to tell together.

Clay taught me to have a deep affinity and insatiable curiosity for tactile materials. The direct manipulation and analog handling of clay allowed me to slow down and work more deliberately, leaving my mark behind in the work that will be remembered long after I fade. In recent years, this understanding of clay has led to an expansion of my material vocabulary. Similar to the way I move fluidly between two languages that I speak, I approach my studio practice as a form of code-switching between physical and digital work, as well as between clay and other materials such as plastic, wood, foam, and paper.

Finally, my ideal audience would be those who are constantly exploring life. Because I moved so often growing up, I have always questioned the definition of home. Once topographical, architectural, and more recently spatial, my work explores the emotional and personal spaces we create as we move through new locations. Through my practice, I have learned to embrace this transient lifestyle and live it to the fullest. I hope that my audience and I can have a mutual exchange, where I share a glimpse of myself, and they find themselves in my work.

CM: What role(s) do you think makers play within our current culture? How do you think you contribute to it?

AA: As artists, I believe we wield the power to question assumptions, foster connection, and shape culture through our visual reflections of society and its established paradigms. Creating art is a privilege that allows me to be vulnerable, give tangibility to my imagination, and share alternate perspectives that offer new insights and appreciation of life. In doing so, I want my work to contribute to an ongoing conversation about the human experience.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself pondering how furniture in domestic spaces shapes our identities and serves as a physical space for accumulated memories. This inspired me to create sculptures that combine ceramic objects and mixed-media furniture using both analog manipulation of clay and digital fabrication methods such as 3D scanning, 3D printing, and CNC-milling. Through this approach, I wish for my work to encompass varying degrees of visual information while expanding the methodological diversity within ceramic art. And by exploring these ideas, I hope to encourage audiences to consider how their own physical surroundings and collected objects shape who they are.