Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale 2026

Australian artist Yasmin Smith brings materials that carry traces of plant life, geology, and industry into her ceramic practice. She often uses ash from burned plants or coal in her glazes, allowing the surfaces of her works to reveal the passage of time and environmental change in particular places.

First, take a look at Manchester Driftwood. Smith recreates branches collected from the Manchester Ship Canal in ceramic and glazes them with ash made by burning those same branches. Follow the branch forms as they curve across the wall. Their surfaces carry traces of the environmental and industrial history that has accumulated in the canal since the Industrial Revolution.

Next, in Forest, ceramic pieces that look like stones form a single line. Smith collected fly ash—a very fine ash produced by burning coal—from 11 coal-fired power stations across eastern Australia and used it to make glazes for the works. Follow the surfaces as they shift from lighter to darker tones. The changing colors created by ash from different power stations bring together geological time, far older than human history, and traces of industrialization.

Then, in Chicxulub, Smith recreates in ceramic core samples taken from the Chicxulub impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico, where evidence of the mass extinction 66 million years ago remains. Based on the chemical composition of each sample, Smith created 45 different glazes for their surfaces. Compare the colors and surfaces of the small pieces arranged vertically. A massive event from Earth’s distant past reappears through the material and color of these small ceramic forms.

The accompanying film, Yasmin Smith: Elemental Life, explores the intertwined histories of plants, geology, and humanity. As you move from branches to stone-like ceramic forms, and then to geological traces dating back 66 million years, consider how much time and history materials from different places can hold.