A Study of Blending Light – Mellow Collection by Hattern Design Studio
Since my main medium is working with ceramic you often have to approach the material on the basis that barriers exist within the shapes that you construct. The walls of the clay are one screen, next is the glaze and the different techniques used on the surface of the vessel. Porcelain is probably an anomaly within the craft, but even the opacity of porcelain is usually obscured by a glaze. When I see light shining through the walls of a porcelain vessel it’s an usual feeling, one that always gives me an urge to explore this phenomenon in more detail.
Hattern, meaning Happy Pattern, is a studio under the art direction of Jae Yang working between Seoul & Milan under the name UMZIKIM. This year they released their very first project titled ‘Mellow Collection’, a series of Acrylic block vases that use both blurred and clear surface in a variety of colour gradients. It’s intriguing that the inspiration was taken from 19th-century Impressionists, who varied the light with pigments used in their paintings.
Jae Yang wanted to use a similar theme in their collection of objects seen here, using this technique of mixing colours and matching it with a functional shape. I think these blur the line between art, sculpture and design, it ticks many of the boxes and is great how the light refracts when it hits the objects. Here are a few pictures from their 2017 collection, more are available to see on the link below. Enjoy.