FOUND IN TRANSLATION

I see the white color,

That is empty to fill

…And I organize the beauty among them in my own presence in order.

Extracts from a short essay, titled: ‘A Strong Form of Beauty, White interpreted as light’ which explains why the writer (a Korean Ceramic Artist) chooses to work with only pure white clay.

The writer originally wrote the essay in Korean and then translated it to English using a tool on Google. It was then given to me to ‘tidy-up’.

When reading this for the first time I was immediately struck by its refreshing, sometimes surreal nature. The order and selection of the words used were unusual and some of the statements that were formed by the online translation tool, seemed oddly profound.

The fact that the writer had achieved this unwittingly made the writing even more exciting to me as I knew that the lines were half formed by chance, much like a dada poem.

I think some of the statements made can seem quite profound, because there are gaps in them that the reader is forced to fill in order to make sense of what they are reading. As a result you are forced to think about each line and consider quite deeply what exactly the writer was trying to say.

For example, I found myself considering; how can white be interpreted as light? What was it before? Is white more ‘empty’ than other colours? How does she organize the beauty among them? When I’m alone, am I aware of my own presence?

Great creative starting points.