Phil rogers pottery biography of barack

In September 1997 I went, by invitation of Chungnam National University, to live and work in South Korea for three months. My home was a small house in the village of Sangsin-ri, about 10 miles from the city of Daejeon, two hours south of the capital Seoul.

The village, nestled in a wooded valley surrounded by rice fields, is almost entirely populated with potters, centred around a traditional communal, six-chamber climbing kiln. Each morning as I drew back the curtains I could see the forested outline of Gyeryongsan, a mountain sacred to many Koreans just a couple of miles away.

I was soon to learn that the area around Gyeryongsan was very important to the history of Buncheong pottery and the whole experience of living in this beautiful and historic place was to have quite an impact on my own work.

Almost from the very beginning of my professional life as a potter I have been drawn towards Korean ceramics of the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Bunche