[Interview] Negotiating Uncertainty: The Material Language of Viviana Hayeong Jeon

As the lingering London winter finally gave way to the first stirrings of spring, I sat down with Viviana Hayeong Jeon. Her abstract ceramic works have been quietly gaining a following across London’s art scene, marked by a rare sensitivity to both material and emotion. We met shortly after her group exhibition at Seager Gallery—a moment of reflective pause for an artist whose work explores the profound tension between the tangible and the fleeting.

Digital Sculpture Frottage, Silicone on ceramics

Fragmented Forms: Beyond the Object

Viviana’s sculptures do not feel like static objects; they feel like the physical residue of layered sensations. Though clay remains her primary language, she allows it to coexist with glass, silicone, and digital imagery in a state of deliberate irresolution. Her pieces resist the urge to settle into a ‘finished’ form, hovering instead in the tension between fragmentation and accumulation.

Born and raised in Korea and now based in London, Viviana refined her sculptural practice at the Royal College of Art (RCA). Reflecting on this pivotal cultural and academic shift, she notes:

Artist portrait

“My education in Korea provided a foundation; the deep understanding of ceramic art and the rigorous sense of craftsmanship I developed there have been consciously and practically essential to my work. Building on this solid base, my time at the RCA allowed that focus to expand further. It became an intense, excavational process where I constantly questioned the why and how behind my making. I felt treated not as a student, but as an artist from the very beginning, which empowered me to dive even deeper into the materiality and sculptural depth I have always been drawn to.”

This shift continues to define her practice today. For Viviana, her work is defined by a core set of principles: informality, materiality, accumulation, fragmentation, and vulnerability. Working almost exclusively through hand-building, the physical labour is not merely a technique but a mode of thought. Every pinch and press of the clay is a direct visualisation of her internal landscape, where her feelings and thoughts take on a physical shape.

The Glitch: A Dislocated Reality

Her recent inquiries explore the overlapping boundaries of the physical and digital worlds—a theme that feels increasingly urgent in our hyper-connected age. In one experiment, she placed her ceramic pieces on a flatbed scanner. The resulting images captured only fragmented surfaces; the ‘glitches’—distortions caused by the scanner’s light failing to reach the depths of the clay—revealed the exact moment a physical object slips into a digital state.

This exploration is deeply personal and rooted in the lived experience of dislocation. Moving between Korea and the UK, Viviana became acutely aware of what it means to exist across different time zones and emotional registers simultaneously. This was never more apparent than during the recent political unrest in Korea. While physically safe in London, she was tethered to her homeland through the fragile ‘virtual lines’ of phone calls and internet feeds.

Digital Sculpture Frottage, 2025, Ceramics, digitally printed velvet, motorized rollers, metal frame

“I felt a profound sense of helplessness,” she reflects. “There was a staggering gap between my physical location in London and my emotional reality in Korea. I realised that this multilayered, fragmented sensation—being connected yet physically absent—is the archetype of modern life. We communicate through ‘edited’ versions of ourselves on social media, creating a void between who we are and how we are perceived. My work tries to capture the dopamine-fuelled highs and the exhausting lows of this fragmented existence.”

Clay as a Negotiation: Life in the Kiln

In Viviana’s studio, clay is a point of departure rather than just a medium. By hand-building every structure, she allows pressure and touch to dictate the form, treating the process as a negotiation rather than an act of control. She embraces the inherent ‘vulnerability’ of the clay—the way it shifts, sags, or collapses under its own weight.

The firing process then acts as the final, irreversible transformation. She likens this to the fundamental uncertainties of life.

“Placing a meticulously crafted piece into the kiln is a metaphor for life itself,” she explains. “It is much like throwing oneself into a foreign land without any ties, or letting a stranger into your life. You offer up everything you have built, not knowing how the ‘heat’ of the environment will transform it. You take the risk because that extreme environment is exactly what allows the material to reach its full potential—where the clay warps and becomes even more fluid, maximising its material presence.”

Interestingly, she found the UK’s material landscape liberating. “There is such a vast range of clays from across Europe here,” she says. “It allowed me to focus purely on material properties, though it took a great deal of trial and error to master these unfamiliar textures. This struggle with new materials mirrored my own struggle to adapt to a new culture.”

Expanding Boundaries: The Hybrid Body

Living between two worlds has sharpened Viviana’s perspective. In a multicultural hub like London, she has moved beyond purely personal narratives to find themes that resonate more broadly. She seeks to translate Korean philosophy into a universal visual language that anyone can relate to.

This ambition has led her to expand her toolkit beyond traditional ceramics. To capture the ‘hybrid’ and often synthetic nature of modern existence, she introduced silicone, acrylic, and wax. Silicone, in particular, offers a contemporary, flesh-like tactility that contrasts beautifully with the earthy, ancient quality of clay.

This expansion is most poignantly exemplified in her Initial Space series. Inspired by uterine specimens she encountered at the Hunterian Museum, Viviana uses layers of ceramic and glass to evoke the complex intersection of strength and vulnerability. “I was moved by the sheer strength of mothers who endure such physical vulnerability,” she says. These works serve as a tribute to the female body as a site of both creation and profound resilience, built up through layers of fragile yet enduring material.

Initial Space, 2025, Ceramics and glass, 213 x 158 x 59 mm

A State of Becoming

Looking forward, Viviana is preparing for two residency programmes in the United States this summer. These experiences will mark a new chapter in her journey, offering a new set of environmental conditions to which her work must respond.

Whether she is scanning clay to find its digital ghost or layering silicone over fired earth, Viviana’s practice remains in a constant state of becoming. Her work is a fluid dialogue between materials, places, and the senses—a reminder that in a fragmented world, the act of making is the only thing that keeps us whole.

Written by Hyeryoung Jun

 4482 SASAPARI Curator

City, Universtiy of London, MA Culture, Policy and Management, UK

Photo © Viviana Hayeong Jeon