Hae Won Sohn Interviewed on Cammi Climaco's Ceramics Companion Podcast
Hae Won Sohn, MOULT, site-specific installation at Subtitled NYC.
Hae Won Sohn (MFA Ceramics 2018) appeared on Cammi Climaco’s (MFA Ceramics 1998) podcast, The Ceramics Companion, to discuss her path to l, ceramics, and the evolution of her practice.
Her father suggested she pursue art while she prepared to apply to colleges in Seoul. She needed to apply to a discipline-based program and settled on Ceramics through the influence of popular media and significant ceramic locations like Incheon. Incheon is a center of Korean ceramic manufacturing and is designated as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Crafts & Folk Arts.
Born in South Korea, Sohn lived in California as a child for a few years while her father went to school at UC Davis. She says the “hometown” feelings towards the U.S. from that time contributed to her choice to return for graduate school.
Sohn studied under Anders Ruhwald and Ian McDonald at Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the podcast, she details her experience of an Artist-in-Residence (faculty) transition and participating in interviewing final candidates as a current student.
Sohn considers her past self like “a blank slate,” upon arrival to grad school. She spent her first year mostly experimenting and creating “sh*tty things…not art,” before returning to making vessels and settling on a style of work that continues in her practice today. Slip casting is a primary focus in her practice, and she notes her attraction to molds and developing a process to create unique multiples.
Many of Sohn’s works are cast in plaster whose molds may be cast in porcelain, and she considers herself a sculptor who thinks through the lens of ceramics and craft. She is currently exploring bringing more pottery back into her practice.
Sohn is currently based in New York and she will have a new solo exhibition in the spring of 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Ceramicist Cammi Climaco is currently based in New York City. She is the host of The Ceramics Companion and a co-host of The Ceramics Podcast. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions across the United States. She is currently an adjunct professor of Ceramics at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.
Learn more:
Hae Won Sohn – The Ceramics Podcast
