In Ground Truths, multidisciplinary artist and designer Mie Kim turns her attention to one of the stone world’s most overlooked by-products: waste limestone. Typically shunned in ceramics for its volatility and tendency to fracture or deform in the kiln, the material becomes the conceptual and physical core of this work. Through experimental glaze applications and a series of suspended sculptural forms, Kim tests the limits of limestone’s structural and aesthetic potential. The resulting works carry visible traces of instability, with pitting, blistering, and subtle distortions embraced not as flaws but as evidence of material truth.

Kim’s broader practice is rooted in a desire to stay connected to the origin of things. Primarily creating sculpture and limited design objects, she works in a spontaneous dialogue with her natural surroundings, often sourcing indigenous organic materials such as tree ash and wild clay harvested from riverbeds in nearby mountain ranges. These elements find their way into her glazes and bodies, binding each piece to a specific landscape and moment in time. Her approach reflects an effort to reclaim a kind of ascetic intentionality in an era of perceived abundance, where objects are frequently divorced from their source and means of production. In this context, limestone, especially in its discarded, industrial form, becomes a potent symbol of both neglect and latent potential.

Materiality remains the driving force of Ground Truths. By working with wild clay, industrial waste, and foraged minerals, Kim foregrounds slow, hands-on processes that resist standardisation and permanence. Rather than imposing strict control, she allows the inherent behavior of the materials to shape the outcome, inviting collaboration with what she describes as “unruly matter.” 

Ground Truths reads as both an inquiry into secondary material streams and a meditation on how value can be redefined through imperfection, unpredictability, and constraint.