An exhibition at the Australian Design Centre features Vipoo Srivilasa’s restorative ceramics.
Vipoo Srivilasa’s exhibition re/JOY continues his series of ground-breaking collaborative community projects. Vipoo has taken seven precious, yet broken, ceramic objects donated by strangers, each with their own story of migration to different parts of Australia. Around these pieces, he has built seven towering, large-scale works, plus a smaller one in honour of his own story.
This is one of the stories:
Jooyun
My name is Jooyun. I have lived in Stanthorpe, a rural town in Queensland, for 13 years, where I mostly do farm work for a living – packing, thinning, picking and pruning apples, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries.
What did you feel about moving to Australia?
Nervous!
I had been thinking about studying overseas, but it costs so much. Already my dad had supported me through university. My family situation wasn’t that great, and I wasn’t happy with my Korean lifestyle, so I just walked away from everything.
After trying for Canada, and getting rejected, getting a working holiday visa for Australia was easy, and all I could afford. I moved from Korea to Melbourne in 2010, as my brother-in-law had lived here when he was young. I couldn’t speak much English, so I was in a kind of culture shock. I hung around with Koreans having fun in Melbourne, and so I didn’t experience much of Australia.
I didn’t enjoy life in Melbourne, so I only stayed for about six months. I was already 30 years old and working in Korean restaurants for pocket money. I studied English in Language School but didn’t travel much.
I have a permanent visa now. The process was a bit more complicated than getting a working holiday visa as you need to prove your relationship, pay more fees and follow the long process.
What advice would you give to someone moving to Australia?
I think language is the hardest part because, in the first six months, I couldn’t speak English at all. Since 2011, I have been living in Queensland, and it’s a totally different vibe from Melbourne as it’s a rural country town. Back then I felt like an alien. People look at you, staring, and they don’t understand you.
Living in the countryside is different. There is a lot of space and the people are more relaxed and there are grasses everywhere and animals around.
When I go to Korea now, there are too many people and the sky’s different … it’s grey. I can’t live in the city anymore because I have changed a lot living in the countryside and working on the farm for so many years. I feel more relaxed but a bit behind though, maybe because it’s a more isolated life.
What Australian culture do you love?
Adapting multi-culture and a bit more open to the minorities in a society. I like the lifestyle better, living in the countryside, with less interaction with people. I don’t like to get busy … maybe I’m a bit lazy. I don’t need to worry about how I look when I work on the farm. That has changed me a lot and that’s a good thing for me.
Object
My object is a porcelain teapot. I made teapots as part of my wheel-throwing practice at university. If you make a really good teapot, you are kind of there. I tried lots of different designs and started carving as well. The teapot I have chosen has a cracked handle as it didn’t survive the glaze firing. It’s hard to use as a teapot so I use it as a pot plant.
After finishing uni, I still lived at home with my father. I left all my things thereafter I came to Australia. When my dad passed away five years ago, he left the house to my brother, so I had to bring all my stuff here. Even though the teapot has a broken handle, I am attached to it … it’s a kind of obsession. It brings me back to university memories – the campus, the people, and all of us wearing our aprons. Twenty of us used to sit around, all dirty with clay, and eat food. It was a fun memory.
Many of my teapots had no handles as they were damaged in the firing. I didn’t want to leave them behind as they are part of me and the memories have stayed with me till now. It cost me a lot to bring them all from Korea. I now do pottery on the weekend in my little garage after working on the farm during the week. I enjoy making them but I am worried too. Where are they all going to go when I’m not around? They are me; they are my babies. I don’t have human babies of my own, ha ha! I will need to work harder to find them home.
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Vipoo Srivilala re/JOY
Australian Design Centre
22 November 2024 – 19 February 2025
