Suhee Kim
Atelier Onne

Repose: Your background is in floristry. How did you end up in ceramics?

Suhee: I came to Paris from Korea at 26 looking for an adventure. I had been a florist and I needed a change and wanted to continue learning and gain more experience in the field. I had visited Paris before and was fascinated by the city. I loved seeing florists working behind their shop windows. I was also drawn to the energy and diversity of Paris, with so many different things happening all around me. I wanted to immerse myself in this environment, discover new things, and continue growing as a florist. So I decided to move to Paris, even though I didn't speak French.

I started by working in a Korean supermarket while I was learning the language. Then I found a part-time florist job, and I earned my CAP and BP in floristry, the professional qualifications in France.

As a florist, I've always felt that containers are an important part of a floral composition. I wanted to photograph some of my flower arrangements, but I couldn't find the right container, something minimal that would work well with the kenzan I like to use.

So I thought: why not make one. I enrolled in a throwing workshop. It was the first time I had touched this material. The bowl I made came out completely wrong but I loved it. I could not explain it. I fell in love with clay while failing at it.

Repose: How did you go from there to having your own practice?

Suhee: I forgot about it for a while because the workshop was a bit of a disaster. But it stayed in my head. I tried hand-building next, which felt more manageable, and signed up for a trimester of weekly classes. But the scale was limited. So I decided to commit fully. I found an intensive professional training program, four months, Monday to Friday, full days. When I came out I was ready. I found a shared studio and that is where it really started.

Repose: Can you walk us through your research process?

Suhee: The first step in my process is finding the right clay. I like showing the raw material, just the clay as it is. I experiment with different types of clay, sometimes mixing them together or adding other materials to create different textures, colours and surfaces.

Once I have the clay, I work on texture, I start playing with it.

I scratch it, hit it, throw it, pull it, and experiment with different tools. I try all kinds of movements and gestures to see how the clay reacts and what kinds of marks and textures emerge. I enjoy this process of trial and error, letting myself experiment and discover things along the way. Texture is at the core of my practice.

Repose: Where does your inspiration come from?

Suhee: Nature, mostly. I go for a walk and try to look deeply at things: just a tree, there is so much in it. I take photographs and then try to translate what I saw into clay. But it is often simpler than it sounds. I think of something in the evening, I try to make it the next morning. The real work happens in the process, in the conversation with the material.

Repose: Do you think your culture is present in your work?

Suhee: People tell me my pieces look like whale tails, like shells, and I had never thought about it consciously. But I grew up in Korea, a country surrounded by water. Going to the sea every morning was part of daily life. I think that memory stayed somewhere in my body. When I work intuitively, it comes through without my realizing it.

It made me think about Korean ceramic culture too, which people mention when they see my work even though I did not consciously bring it in. I want to understand it, but I do not want to replicate it. I want to arrive at it in my own way.

Repose: What do you want people to feel when they see your pieces?

Suhee: The first thing I want is for them to want to touch. It happens often: someone looks at a piece and asks if they can. That is the response I am looking for.

I want the pieces to carry something in from nature, not to capture it exactly, but to hold some of its life. After firing, the piece is immobilized, fixed. But through the texture, through the surface, something in it still wants to move. When flowers are placed in them, I think that extends the meaning further.

Repose: How do you communicate your work?

Suhee: It is one of the harder things. On social media I often ask myself whether words are even useful, whether the image alone is enough. In the end I say very little and let the photographs speak.

In person it is different. When people come to exhibitions or to the studio, I think they understand what I was trying to put into the work. And I love hearing what they say, even the unexpected things like the whale tail. Those reactions teach me something.

Repose: What is next for you?

Suhee: I have been focused mostly on vessels and containers. I want to move into larger volumes, furniture: coffee tables, side tables. I also want to do more collaborations. I recently worked with an artist based in Brussels on a piece that will be shown at a fair in Belgium. Seeing how materials can meet and balance each other changed how I think about what clay can be part of.

Stepping outside the vessel form showed me how much more there is to explore.

Repose: You still work as a florist alongside all of this?

Suhee: Yes, for events, freelance. I find it genuinely complementary. Working with flowers every day, something of the way they move comes through in the clay even when I am not thinking about it.

Photography: Suhee Kim, gongsonfilm

Repose Archive is a creative direction journal documenting processes and projects across art, design, architecture, and hospitality.