19 March 2026
Artist Highlight - Eunsol Kim
Interview and Review
Eunsol Kim is a Korean artist based in the Netherlands, specialising in ceramics to explore the relationship between time and materiality. Her practice integrates a technical foundation from Korea with experimental research from Design Academy Eindhoven. This perspective pushes her to look beyond conventional methods, integrating the physical properties of diverse materials into her work. By challenging the traditional boundaries of the medium through refined craftsmanship and contemporary inquiry, Eunsol establishes a new materiality in the field of modern ceramics.
ARTIST INTERVIEW
1. The Condensation series translates a fleeting atmospheric phenomenon into ceramic form. What interests you about preserving such a temporary moment in a permanent material?
My goal isn't just to record a moment. I use ceramics to transmute and dissolve the daily friction of wiping away condensation into something beautiful. By shifting that repetitive, laborious feeling into a solid object, I erase the frustration and leave only a refined aesthetic essence. I find the most value in my work when this captured stillness creates a shared sense of empathy with the viewer.
2. The surfaces resemble blurred landscapes seen through misted glass. How do your glazing techniques recreate this visual ambiguity?
To achieve that blurred, misted-glass effect, I layer colored slips and apply a glaze I developed myself. During firing, the glaze beads and flows, partially veiling the colors underneath. This creates a physical depth and a visual fog. It’s a way of using chemical reactions to turn static matter into a living phenomenon that looks as if it’s still in flux.
3. Condensation obscures and reveals simultaneously. How does this shifting visibility shape the conceptual language of the work?
Condensation is paradoxical: it hides the view but reveals the air and temperature we often overlook. I use this to dissolve concrete shapes and bring the hidden, poetic qualities of the material to the surface. For me, obscuring isn't about losing the image. It’s a deliberate way to make the invisible essence of a moment visible.
4. The works originate from a daily act of wiping moisture from windows. How did this routine observation evolve into a central theme within your practice?
Living in the Netherlands, wiping moisture off windows was a constant, almost meditative ritual. I stopped seeing it as a nuisance and started seeing its potential as a visual language. It became a
personal philosophy: accepting things I cannot control and transmuting daily inconveniences into
a reason for beauty. This shift in perspective is the core of my practice.
5. You describe the works as encouraging a “slow gaze.” How do the surfaces invite viewers to pause and engage more attentively with the object?
The surfaces draw attention to an ongoing phenomenon. The texture, appearing as if droplets might flow at any second, provokes a visual curiosity. This leads viewers to pause and verify the texture, marking the beginning of the “slow gaze.” My captured moment of beauty becomes “another moment of witnessing” for others, encouraging them to observe and immerse themselves in the stillness of the object.
6. The series reflects on uncertainty and imperfection. How do material unpredictability and experimentation influence the final character of each piece?
I don’t try to control everything. The way a glaze flows in the kiln adds a certain vitality that I couldn’t plan. In my work, uncertainty is a form of acceptance. By embracing the traces the material leaves on its own, the work becomes a living phenomenon rather than just a manufactured object. This unpredictability gives each piece its own individual character.
7. Within The Invisible Made Visible, your work highlights subtle phenomena often ignored in daily life. What do you hope viewers begin to notice differently after encountering these objects?
I want people to see that even small, mundane frictions can be beautiful if you change your point of view. When they leave the exhibition and see condensation on a window, I hope they don't just see a chore to be wiped away. I want them to see it as a poetic moment that has the potential to be transmuted into something meaningful.
CAPTURING THE EPHEMERAL IN CERAMIC
REVIEW BY CHIH-YANG CHEN, ART DIRECTOR
Eunsol Kim’s ceramic practice explores the relationship between material transformation and fleeting atmospheric phenomena. Drawing on both technical ceramic knowledge and experimental material research, Eunsol approaches clay as a medium capable of translating subtle and often overlooked moments of daily life. In the Condensation series, she focuses on a familiar but temporary occurrence: the thin layer of moisture that forms on glass surfaces, transforming this ephemeral condition into a contemplative ceramic form.
Rather than simply documenting a visual effect, Eunsol seeks to reinterpret the experience surrounding it. The repetitive gesture of wiping condensation from windows becomes the conceptual starting point of the work. What is usually experienced as a small inconvenience is reconsidered as a visual and emotional phenomenon. Through ceramics, Eunsol isolates and preserves this moment, allowing the viewer to encounter the stillness that exists within an otherwise fleeting process.
The surfaces of the works evoke the blurred visual field created by misted glass. To achieve this effect, Eunsol layers coloured slips beneath a specially developed glaze. During firing, the glaze softens and moves across the surface, partially veiling the colours below. This interaction between material and heat produces a visual depth that resembles a fogged window through which shapes appear indistinct and atmospheric. The result is a surface that feels suspended between clarity and obscurity.
This ambiguity forms an important conceptual dimension of the work. Condensation both conceals and reveals. While it obscures the scene behind the glass, it simultaneously makes visible the presence of humidity, temperature, and air. Eunsol translates this paradox into ceramic form by allowing shapes and colours to dissolve into one another. Rather than presenting clear imagery, the work encourages a quieter form of perception in which viewers become attentive to subtle shifts in surface and light.
Material unpredictability also contributes to the character of each piece. The behaviour of glaze in the kiln cannot be fully controlled, and Eunsol embraces this uncertainty as part of the work’s language. The flow of glaze introduces small variations and textures that suggest movement frozen in time. These subtle irregularities reinforce the sense that the surface captures a moment that might otherwise disappear.
Through the Condensation series, Eunsol invites viewers to slow their attention and reconsider the unnoticed phenomena of everyday life. What begins as a simple domestic observation becomes a meditation on perception, material transformation, and the quiet beauty contained within ordinary moments.