This series is inspired and named after another chapter from
‘In Watermelon Sugar’ the book that has played a key role in Mimi’s work over
the past years. In this case it is
inspired by a very short chapter titled ‘A Lot of Goodnights’ and centres
around her interest in the Moon. Mimi
has been wanted to make her own version of the Moon Jar for some time, as
culturally being a Korean artist in London, she feels very connected to the
origins of the Moon Jar, named for its whiteness and near perfect round shape,
made from a traditional Korean white porcelain, made during the Joseon
dynasty. The Joseon white porcelain was
adopted as imperial ware in the fifteenth century. Bernard
Leach travelled to Korea and became an avid collector of Korean ceramics and
furniture. He was drawn one Moon Jar in
particular which he purchased in 1935 and gifted to Lucy Rie in 1943. She kept it in her studio until her death. Mimi feels very connected to the story of
this Moon Jar travelling from Korea to the UK and now residing in London in the
British Museum. Mimi has made a similar
journey and wanted to create her own homage to the Moon Jar. Mimi
references the influence too of Korean photographer Koo Bohnchang, famous for his wonderfully quiet photographs
of rare white moon jars and vessels isolated or arranged in groups on white
textured Japanese rice paper. He chose
to photograph Moon Jars appreciated for their simple, unadorned beauty and he
too was very preoccupied with the idea of the moon jar moving away from the
country and moving to a multitude of museums in the West. It felt like himself moving away from home
but always thinking about where he belonged. His work deals with the passage of
time, capturing still and fragile moments, and the simple beauty of Korea’s
cultural heritage. She likes this story
of movement and how the moon provides a sense of nostalgia and belonging - we all gaze upon the same Moon so this unites
us around the world.

For this series, Mimi didn’t want to make it a traditional smooth
round shape and stick to white, she wanted to explore colour and form. Looking at the Moon from Venus, it appears white
silver so she’s been using a pearl lustre to achieve this effect. She wanted the colours to be softer than in
previous work, so used a silver lustre on some to create a subtle sheen and
translucence allowing the colour to come through underneath – glowing almost
like the moon. The surface is created in
her distinctive method of using language written by hand in porcelain slip
which is then coiled and built up to create the moon jar. Each
one is made up of the written text from the chapter but in this series as the
chapter is so short it repeats itself in each. She adjusts the heat of the kiln to create a
more collapsed form which she wanted in one grey gradated piece to provide
balance and contrast to the group. There
is beauty in this gentle collapse which is planned, again highlighting the love
of imperfection in Korean ceramics. The
Joseon aesthetic was often stained, cracked and worn by everyday use bearing
the traces of human life.