This piece was made in high school, 2001 or so. It was one of my earlier attempts at a stacked pot: throw two separate pieces, let them dry to leather-hard, then stack one top of the other. The two vases were probably around 10-12 inches tall. So the piece is pretty tall overall.
Like many early attempts at a particular technique, there is always a fuck-up. In this case, the top of the bottom half didn't align with the bottom of the top half. There was no sense of continuity between the two. The ceramics teacher suggested I put a slab over the middle and smooth it over.
But...as you can see... I got a little lazy and just put the slab on and didn't smooth it over. I kind of liked it this way (although in retrospect, not so much). I liked how it looked like a band-aid trying to mend the division and its precarious connection. The metaphors are all there - hugs, hands; much to do about holding together.
Later on when I put the piece in some show, my mom said that we should name it Korea because it would be an analogy for unification and mending the bond between the two countries. I don't remember if that's what I named the piece. But it goes beyond Korea and I hoped it would resonate on various levels of being and putting things back on the mend.
