A Molded Moon, Life within a Vase
A Molded Moon, Life within a Vase. 2016. 11min 14sec. Single channel HD video installation with sound.
The piece focuses on Korean white porcelain moon jars as a medium, using their aesthetics of imperfection to question the validity and philosophy of perfection, and the futility of the human pursuit of perfection. The video draws from and adapts Goethe’s Faust, particularly from the passages in which the titular character, dissatisfied with his life’s accomplishments, seeks further knowledge and perfection and sells his soul to the demon Mephistopheles for the power to achieve his goals. Although the subject of the video is primarily the white porcelain moon jar, it is not restricted by this subject matter and instead broadens the subject in a universal visual and philosophical manner.