Nature Never Dies

Last year, I was deeply saddened by the wildfires that swept across the Gyeongsang region of Korea, leaving vast forests blackened. Yet even in a landscape where everything seemed to have ended, nature did not stop. With time, new shoots emerge beside the charred trees, and the forest slowly restores itself.

This work captures nature’s resilience and power of regeneration, offering hope and comfort to those who carry wounds of their own — the belief that we, too, can rise again.

Porcelain, celadon and black clay were rolled into separate slabs, layered, and rolled again into a single sheet before being formed into a cylinder. The black clay was dried ahead of the others so that natural cracks would open during firing — echoing the split bark of fire-damaged trees and the traces left by time.

The upward-reaching branches express nature’s will to grow toward life again, while the contrast between the charred surface and the exposed clay holds destruction and renewal in the same moment. When fresh leaves or branches are placed in the vessel, the burned tree comes alive once more.

Nature never dies. Just as it heals itself, our wounded lives can also recover, grow and bloom again.