To mark this event the Museum has invited Nam-Sook Chang, a Masters in Fine Arts graduate from the Otago Polytechnic, to exhibit three works at the time of the opening. Since she returned to Seoul, Chang’s works are based on her experiences as a Korean immigrant living in New Zealand. Revealing something of her identity as experienced between two cultures, her work explores where she has come from and aspects of her identity in a new country. Chang has said of her work, ‘My journey of migration, my new experiences in New Zealand, my previous research into children’s art and play, my memories of Korea, all feed into my ceramic work. It is through this work that I have tried to ‘trace my journey and shifting identity in-between two cultures and their different landscapes.’

Chang’s works are typical of the Korean aesthetic spirit; a love and inspiration from nature that are playful and humorous yet with a quiet sensitivity and wonderfully imaginative. As such, Chang is a continuation of the appealing contradictions that characterise thousands of years of Korean ceramic history. Now, the culmination is placing that creativity in New Zealand.