Yurim Gough was born in Korea, a country with a historic tradition of ceramics. Gough was a fashion designer and by the age of 30 had been designing high heeled shoes for over ten years in Seoul then in Tokyo and London. Gough emigrated to England in 2007, the first time she had set foot outside Asia. Learning English from scratch and being influenced by the radical change in culture Gough went back to being an artist, which was always her first calling. Starting with life drawing and experimenting with other media, Gough found herself drawn to her cultural roots in ceramics.
Can you tell us about your journey into art and your art education?
I feel like I’m traveling in the past to answer this question. First of all, I think my interest in art started when I was born. When I was six years old, I drew a painting that surprised my school teacher, and it was a view of the ocean. After that, my interest grew and my school teacher started to submit my art to competitions. For me, who couldn’t concentrate well with my single mother due to my family environment, painting was one thing that I could focus on.
For three years from age 15 to 17, I practiced hard at school and after school in special classes in the hope of going to study art at University. Unfortunately despite passing the entrance exams, I was forced to drop out after the interview because of my family status. At that time in Korea lack of family name and parentage could deny you admission. I had a great interest in fashion however, so I went to a fashion school instead for a year and learned to think three-dimensionally. For example in the design of bags, shoes, and other accessories.
I have never formally learned art, so I had to learn it by myself. The only thing that made it possible to learn alone was to be focused on the art and be satisfied by my own interest in it.
How has your Korean upbringing impacted your art?
Life was not easy for me and my single mother when I was young in Korean society. My mother always drank and often had friends around, so I drew pictures every time. It was my own refuge. And I was a very sensitive child with a lot of sadness. For me, painting was a language that drew out things that I couldn’t say. Even now, aside from my main work, I sometimes just paint crazily. And then the next day I feel very refreshed.
What or who inspires your art?
First of all, it’s influenced by me and other people. Living human emotions, love, hate, jealousy, happiness, unhappiness, sadness, pain … etc. Countless human emotions affect my work a lot.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
Who are my favourite artists changes over time like a fashion trend.
These days, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Saville, Marina Abramovich, and many others, their works have a strong sense of truth and strength. And there’s something in common about working on nudity and being a female artist.
You work predominantly with ceramics what is it that appeals to you about this medium?
Ceramics is a magical world for me.
It’s good to feel close to nature in the process of combining with earth, and it’s good to feel the strong force of fire in the process of firing. The life drawing on the rough surface is the most stimulating experience. Then after glazing which makes the drawing loved and protected, I enjoy painting on the shiny, soft surface. And overall it’s great to be able to create stories embodied in an object that I have handled and shaped and put so much into.
Can you tell us about the process you use in creating your work?
It takes a lot of time and it’s a complicated process to create a piece.
First, I hand mould the clay into an organic shape, often a bowl. After firing I then plan what kind of scene I’ll create, and then draw a life drawing directly onto it in front of a live nude model who I give direction to. Sometimes I photograph the model with accessories or clothing as a reference for later. Glaze goes on top of it and it is fired again. I then select the images to overlay on the life drawing, and create ceramic transfers. The transfers are added to the smooth surface of the picture. Finally I might augment the piece with gold lustre, or by adding wire stitching by drilling tiny holes, or replace sections of the ceramic with 3D-scanning and printing and so on.
Can you tell us about your VainEgo and Gender-fluid projects?
The VainEgo project moves on from imagined stories to real stories, with myself as the life model and subject. In May 2016 I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this motivated me to start the new project. I decided to draw a self-portrait every day, and I also made 30 bowls to do life-drawings of myself over the next year or so. Now I am making 108 small sculptures each based on one of the self portraits. Vain is looking at myself in the mirror a lot, and Ego is the deep self- examination. So, ‘VainEgo’. Although the drawings might capture some of the moment and the emotion, I continue to use the process to use what I capture in the poses to bring out stories. Now the bowls, the drawings and the imagery show events, feelings, or times that marked my life, starting with my childhood. I don’t pose for the story, I pose for the moment, then come back later to the bowls and see what stories they bring out as I add the imagery. Each of the pieces match the essence of the moment captured in the self-portrait, to specific past experiences that were defining over the whole of my life.
I am currently interested in contemporary issues and trends that deal with gender fluidity. I’m fascinated by how a number of men are redesigning their style influenced by the queer culture. This fluidity of the male body captivates my eye and my new works are highly influenced by that.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
My studio is in Cambridge city centre. It’s a nice square-shaped garden studio room at the back of the house. Lots of diffuse ambient light as it is North facing with one side glass sliding doors.
Creative space is really important to me. I can work without having my own kiln for my work, but without a studio my art would stop. My workspace is divided into two. It’s a ‘brain space’ on one side and a ‘body space’ on the other. For me, balance is very important, just like our brains. In the brain space, all the planning, data and images are easily attached to the wall to make it easier to see. I plan and organize it just as when I used to work as a designer, following some process and using a lot of the tools for researching, organising and developing.
How has the current lockdown affected your work?
It was the greatest disappointment to me that the London Hix Art Gallery exhibition in collaboration with Victoria Grant, which has so far been the most important opportunity in my art career, had to close right after its installation in March. And even more so the project itself, with Victoria who I really felt a great connection to in our joint works. Because of the coronavirus! And all the other plans for 2020 that I had hoped for have been suspended.
In addition, having life-drawing models come to the studio isn’t possible, and the kiln service I was using is not running. So in fact, although I am working it is not possible to complete anything new. Also, as my 7-year-old daughter has not been able to go to school, there has been a lot of changes in my daily routine, and the amount of time I can work is less than half than before. I had to think for weeks about what to do while adapting to this lockdown environment. Overall I am very fortunate compared to others, but when it comes to my work, the lockdown has not been kind.
What are you working on currently?
I’m making half-formed sculptures of my drawings, then drawing on those to complete their form. It is 108 VainEgo Faces that I started making but before and now I am completing the number.
I can see more of my face in the mirror while I am making, and I have a chance to get to know myself.
Also in this time of limited choice, I have begun the process of testing ways to paint on canvas using my own style developing on from what I have learned doing my ceramic work. This is very exciting at the moment as it is new and I am surprising myself with my paintings.
