Mimi Joung

“OUR WORDS ARE HIDDEN. OUR MEANINGS ARE REVEALED”

Mimi asks us to understand meaning through form, through colour and through word.

Mimi Joung, originally from Korea, gained her Masters in ceramic and glass from the Royal College of Art and is currently based in London, UK. 

Mimi’s deep understanding of materials and techniques, along with her considerable knowledge of the history of ceramics, enables her to work both with and against the traditions and conventions of her medium. Her approach is systematic and rigorous as much as it is inventive and intuitive, the resulting works being distillations of multiple references and experiences.

She completed an Artist in Residence program at the Banff Arts Centre, Canada, which celebrates conceptual art in Canada and allows international artists to explore the future of their ideas. She has also received art’s grants and commissions from Korea, England, Wales, and around the world.

Mimi is an award winning artist and exhibits her works internationally. Her work has also been acquired by Stadtmuseum Siegburg in Germany and private collectors around the world.

I trained as a ceramist and artist at the Fine Art department in Wonkwang University, South Korea and the Royal College Of Art, United Kingdom. Since then, I have developed a range of work through installations, artist residencies and private commissions in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia.

Process is all important to me. My hands instinctively seek to resolve ideas through the act of making and follow a playful approach, reflecting my own life, what I read and what I learn from other people and situations. I feel that my comfort with materials and techniques allows me to seek a deeper meaning in the historical context of ceramic materials, forms and colour.

A major body of work developed from my response to a simple birth mug (Sarah 1775) that has been on display at the V&A since my time at the RCA. I imagined the life of Sarah, born in the midst of Britain’s industrialisation, and created my own story, ‘A letter to my mother’ (2003) in response. Since then I have created a wide range of site specific, often unfired and unglazed pieces, that build on story-telling and sense-making. 

Recently, my work has evolved as I begin to create more sculptural pieces based on a slim novel called ‘In Watermelon Sugar’ by the American writer, Richard Brautigan. I Create these sculptures by tracing and taping each chapter of Brautigan’s surreal landscape which are reflections of displacement within imagined utopias and dystopias.

My current work includes interpretations of  T.S.Eliot's four quartets, a reflection on the hardest words in our language (Shadows of yes & no), portraits of writers and an examination of ‘rule breaking’ through the Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse. I also completed a range of sculptural works inspired by the weather and, following my interest, in utopian landscapes and a residency in Tuscany, am developing landscape ornaments from mushrooms, follies and cypress trees.

Awards and grants

• Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Acquisition for Museum collection, 2023

• Oriel y Parc Resident artist selected by Cardiff Museum and Safle, Arts Council Wales, 2010

• Banff Arts Centre, Scholarship, Future idea of art residency, Arts Council Canada, Sept 2006 

• Grant for Arts, Art Council North East, individual development grant, March 2006

• Rootstein Hopkins Foundation, Project Grant, 2006 

• NCSP Grant, Symposium support, July 2006

• Grant for Arts, Art Council North East, Travel grant, March 2006

• Designed and Made Industry Bursaries, European Union, Northern Rock Foundation, 2006

• British Craft in Japan Travel Grant, Crafts Council, UK Investment & Trade, 2006

• Next Move Artist in Residence, Crafts Council UK, Sunderland university, Arts council England, 2005 - 2007

• Faenza International Ceramic Art Competition, 2004/5

• Oversea Student Bursaries, Royal College of Art, UK, 2004/5