Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026

Serin Oh focuses on ceramics that were nearly finished but rejected as products, as well as ornaments that were once used but are now discarded. She examines how objects are selected or rejected, and how those that have lost their original use can take on new value.

The video China! Jingdezhen! begins with a set of Jingdezhen teacups that the artist’s neighbor bought years ago. While researching the ceramic factory districts of Jingdezhen, China, Oh visited a factory producing funerary urns for export to Korea. The video follows the production and inspection of the urns, as well as ceramics discarded because of minor defects or differences from standard dimensions. Previously known to Oh only through an old tea set and a vague image, Jingdezhen becomes, through the video, a real place of production, labor, and waste.

The accompanying works, Out of the Fire, Where the Parrot Watches, Still, and Forms at the Edge, grew out of this research. Oh recreates the forms of rejected ceramics, out-of-fashion accessories, imitation gems, and shells in ceramic and metal, combining them into unfamiliar sculptures that recall traditional viewing stones, or suseok.

Follow the small forms clustered across the sculptures. Shapes resembling imitation gems, shells, and ornaments cling to the ceramic surfaces, at times evoking living growths or old remnants. These small forms are repeatedly made using molds and casting techniques. By turning a process closely associated with mass production into slow, repetitive handwork, Oh invites us to reconsider the speed and efficiency of production, as well as the value of objects.

As you look at these sculptures, where rejected objects and things that have lost their use reappear in entirely different forms, consider this question: Why do some things remain valuable while others are discarded?